Building materials giant CRH is expected to see lower-than-anticipated earnings growth in 2017 in light of potential ongoing market volatility and economic uncertainty.

CRH yesterday faced one of the largest shareholder revolts over executive pay in Irish corporate history, with more than 40% of its shareholders — representing a combined €8.5bn of its €21.4bn market value — opposing a hike in bonuses at its AGM.

CRH shares rose nearly 2% at one point yesterday on the back of a strong trading update from the building materials company and an upbeat outlook for the second half of the year.

CRH chief executive Albert Manifold will see his pay increased by 8.5% this year. 

Building materials giant CRH expects further large assets to go on sale as international rivals move to improve their balance sheets, adding it is looking at “hundreds” of potential acquisitions.

Senan Murphy, currently chief operating officer at Bank of Ireland, has been named group finance director at building materials giant, CRH.

CRH has taken its committed spend for the current year to around €8bn on the back of another international mega-deal.

CRH is expected to appeal a decision by Switzerland’s competition commission to fine it €32m for alleged price-fixing.

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’s investment spend for this year looks set to inch past the €7bn mark, with the company heavily linked with an €800m move for the number two player in South Korea’s cement market.

Analysts are signalling a near-24% jump in CRH’s medium-term share price on the back of it completing the purchase of certain assets from Swiss and French cement firms Holcim and Lafarge, and those assets making some contribution to the group’s current financial year.

Manila-based investment firm Aboitiz Equity Ventures has announced that it plans to co-invest with CRH in the purchase of the Filipino assets of French cement company Lafarge.

Shareholders of Swiss cement maker Holcim paved the way for the planned merger with French rival Lafarge SA by approving a capital increase needed for the deal.

CRH could end up spending around €8bn on acquisitions and investments this year, management hinted yesterday.

First-half earnings at CRH are expected to be up by around 10%, year-on-year, on a constant currency basis, with management expecting progress to continue for the remainder of the year.

Holcim and Lafarge will divest plants, terminals and an Iowa quarry to win US regulatory approval for a merger between the European cement makers that will form the industry’s biggest producer.

The second-largest shareholder in Swiss cement maker, Holcim, has said it supports the company’s planned merger with France’s Lafarge.

CRH is expected to promote from within when deciding upon a new finance director later this year.

The Russian businessman Filaret Galchev, who owns a 10.8% stake in Swiss building materials group Holcim, via Eurocement Holding, has rejected the merger offer that France’s Lafarge has made for Holcim, a Swiss newspaper reported.

On Sunday afternoon a week ago, Bruno Lafont, the chief executive of Lafarge took a call from Wolfgang Reitzle, the chairman of Swiss cement company Holcim, seeking to merge with its French rival. He had bad news.

Holcim Ltd and Lafarge SA reached an agreement to adjust merger terms in an effort to salvage their bid to form the world’s biggest cement maker, leaving open the contentious point of who will be chief executive.

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.

Here’s a run down of today’s business headlines.

Holcim called a halt yesterday to its merger with Lafarge, pressing the French company to renegotiate the deal terms and putting its plan to create the world’s biggest cement maker at risk.

CRH’s “game-changing” €6.5bn takeover of certain assets from its European peers Holcim and Lafarge will not be the limit of its acquisition spend this year, with almost €1bn being generated from operations in 2014 set to fund a good pipeline of smaller deal prospects.

Here is a deal with all the red flags of M&A — ambition, leverage, and a jumbo share placing.

Building materials group CRH raised €1.6bn through an equity placement yesterday to part-fund the biggest acquisition in the company’s history.

CRH is buying the UK’s biggest cement maker as part of the €6.5bn sale of assets by merger partners Lafarge and Holcim.

CRH has entered a binding agreement to buy assets that cement makers Holcim and Lafarge need to sell ahead of their planned merger.

A successful takeover of assets being offloaded to facilitate the planned mega-merger between Swiss and French cement giants Holcim and Lafarge could prove to be a “game-changing” deal for Irish group CRH, analysts believe.

CRH yesterday confirmed that it is in discussions with Lafarge and Holcim regarding the potential acquisition of certain assets being disposed of by the cementmakers in advance of their proposed merger.

CRH has submitted bids for assets put up for sale by cement makers Holcim and Lafarge ahead of their planned merger.

Building materials group CRH spent €190m on 21 separate acquisitions and investments last year as part of its portfolio refinement.

Cement giant, CRH is likely to focus more on the US in terms of future investment, but a move for some assets being offloaded as part of the Holcim-Lafarge mega-merger hasn’t been ruled out.

CRH has been linked to a joint bid for the assets due to be sold in order to pass the planned mega-merger of French and Swiss cement giants, Lafarge and Holcim.

CRH has spent €60m on acquisitions and investments — covering seven "small" transactions — since the beginning of 2014 and claims to have approximately €1.5bn available to spend over the next year and a half.

Swiss citizens voted yesterday to impose some of the world’s strictest controls on executive pay, forcing public companies to give shareholders a binding vote on compensation, initial result projections showed.

Brokers have described fresh rumours of CRH attracting takeover interest from global peers as being “highly speculative” and “unlikely”.

SHARES on the Irish market dipped slightly yesterday despite a continued rally from banks stocks.

THE Irish equity market’s 66% fall in 2008 made it the worst performer in western Europe for the second year in a row, and one of the worst markets globally.

The FTSE 100 Index clung on above the 4800 mark today as negative sentiment towards blue-chip shares spilled over to the UK from Wall Street.

Heavy falls by shares across the Atlantic last night set the tone for the London market today.