CRH’s €6.5bn acquisition of certain assets offloaded by European cement giant LafargeHolcim – which completed, slightly ahead of schedule, this week – could enhance its earnings by more than 30% over the next year, it has been claimed.

CRH is being linked with a second potential Asian deal in as many weeks, this one with a price tag of around $1bn (€890m).

CRH is continuing to work under the assumption that the merger of its European peers Holcim and Lafarge will succeed, but has maintained that a collapse of the proposed deal will not hamper its own ambitious growth plans.