CRH walks away from Egyptian bid

CRH may bid for French building supplies firm Franz Bonhomme, following yesterday's disclosure the group had walked away from a bid for Egyptian-based Misr Beni Suef Cement (MBSC), a cement manufacturer.

Exclusive talks had been going on for over 12 months between the two the Egyptian group confirmed yesterday.

CRH refuses to comment on speculation, or on its specific takeover targets.

Its failure to buy MBSC is, however, the third attempt by the group to buy into the Egyptian market in the past few years.

Now CRH has been linked with possible expansion in the French market where it has been rumoured the giant Irish builders suppliers could buy Franz Bonhomme, a leading distributor of plastic pipes and accessories used in the building, water drainage and civil engineering industries.

Robert Eason, analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers, said CRH may have to go head to head with Wolseley another group interested in expanding its French interests further.

CRH has a slight presence in the French market with just 3% of sales or €240m generated from its activities there.

Goodbody said the Irish company is always active in the markets where it has a presence and believes it recently lost out to Wolseley in another bid to buy Pinault Bois & Materiaux, the number two distributor of heavy materials in France.

Cement Roadstone Holding's expansion has been consistently driven by acquisitions, the vast majority modest in size, given the nature of the business.

Despite its relatively small presence in France it is the number one player in utility precast and the number two builders merchants with 28 branches serving that market.

Mr Eason believes that given its strategy of getting value for money the Irish firm will walk away from any French bid if the price makes the deal untenable from its perspective.