CRH has an amazing appetite for new pastures and has even invested in companies that operate in war zones such as Israel and Palestine. So it's probably no great surprise that it's now being linked with a bid for a majority stake in three cement plants in Serbia.

CRH never comments on companies it is associated with, but the Reuters man in Belgrade recently quoted local officials as saying that CRH was one of a group of companies which included all the usual suspects - Italcementi, Lafarge, Heidelberger, Titan of Greece and Vicat from France - as interested parties.

There are three plants involved, including one that was earmarked for sale to Lafarge for €68 million (£53.5 million), until that sale was scrapped because it had been agreed by the Milosevic government.