CRH has said it has seen no impact from the coronavirus on its business and it is "way too early" to say if it will hit its balance sheet this year.

CRH has said it remains committed to its UK business, despite falling profits and a looming Brexit, and has defended itself against recent criticism from one of its key shareholders.

Building materials group CRH is reportedly closing in on a €1.7bn sale of its European Distribution business to private equity fund Blackstone.

CRH needs to press ahead with extensive structural improvements, activist shareholder Cevian Capital has said, adding that the Dublin-based building materials company could double in value in the next three to five years if it does so.

Building materials group CRH will decide, within the next three months, whether or not to sell its European distribution division.

CRH is looking to generate €7bn in cash, before asset disposals, over the next four years which it may use to fund acquisitions, increase dividends, or buy back more shares.

CRH has immediate room to spend in the region of €650m-€700m per year on acquisitions, and the company envisages no change to its acquisition-led growth strategy for decades to come.

CRH is still tipped to win out in its plans to acquire US cement giant Ash Grove but will likely have to pay more than the $3.5bn (€2.98bn) it had planned for it to fend off an 11th-hour from a US rival.

CRH shares slipped yesterday despite the Irish building materials giant being linked to another mega-deal which could significantly enhance its growth in the US.

Shares in CRH rose 3% after the building-materials giant announced it was to buy a leading US cement manufacturer for $3.5bn (€2.93bn).

Building materials giant CRH has said it is ready to act further on what it sees as “a strong pipeline” of acquisition opportunities in light of selling part of its US operations for $2.6bn (€2.2bn).

CRH has hailed a “satisfactory” start to 2017, with first quarter sales ahead by 4% on a year-on-year basis.

Building materials giant CRH is expected to spend over €1bn this year on bolt-on acquisitions, with outlay in the first quarter alone already topping €600m.

CRH shares surged by 5% yesterday, on the back of both a record set of yearly earnings and US president Donald Trump’s reiteration of his promise to spend $1tn on US infrastructure improvements.

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 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.

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

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’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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 expects to see its financial recovery continue during the second half of the year, after swinging back into profit in the first six months.

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.

CRH is to dispose of between 10% and 30% of its subsidiary portfolio over the next few years; but also has the capacity to spend up to €1.5bn on fresh acquisitions over the coming 18 months.

Concrete and cement group CRH expects to return to growth this year, with management suggesting 2013 was the turning point in the group’s profit cycle.

Building materials company CRH spent nearly €700 million on acquisitions and investments last year, nearly €100m more than its 2012 outlay.

Incoming chief executive Albert Manifold has said staff reductions in CRH’s northern European operations will be an inevitable part of continued cost reduction drives by the building materials group.

Albert Manifold has been appointed as group chief executive of construction giant CRH, effective January 1, 2014.

CRH paid chief executive Myles Lee just under €2.54m last year, nearly 6% less than in the previous year.

CRH has said it has several investment and acquisition deals in the pipeline, but has declined to say if its overall spend for 2012 will eclipse last year’s €600m outlay.

Performance-related bonus payments drove executive director remuneration up at CRH last year, despite a drop in combined salaries.