CRH spends more than €630m expanding firm

CRH has spent more than €630 million on acquisitions and developments in the first six months of this year, well ahead of last year's €450 million interim figure. The company said yesterday it was committed to targeting further acquisitions.

CRH's general manager of finance, Mr Myles Lee, said, with 14 acquisition teams in the Americas and Europe, the company was constantly looking for acquisition opportunities. He said most would be small and medium bolt-on deals.

While the company was most interested in acquisitions in Europe and North America, it was also trying to buy the Misr Beni Suef cement group in Egypt, he said. That transaction involves a major cement plant still under construction and is conditional on that plant being completed in the last quarter.

Last month, CRH made an offer of €178 million for the Egyptian firm subject to the new 1.4 million tonne cement plant south of Cairo being completed in the last quarter of this year. The proposed deal forms part of CRH's strategy to expand in the eastern Mediterranean and follows the failure of two earlier moves on targets in Egypt.

In May, CRH announced two major acquisitions. It acquired the EHL European buildings materials group for €155 million and also the US Aggregates company for €81 million.

Other acquisitions in the first half of the year included a total spend on materials-related projects in Europe of €9.7 million, including the commencement of a €2.4 million precast concrete wall panel plant at its Belgard facility in Dublin. It also spent €242.2 million on 10 materials-related acquisitions in the Americas. On the products and distribution side, the total spend in the first half was €141.9 million, comprising €37.6 million in Europe and €104.3 million in the Americas.

Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst Mr Robert Eason said the acquisitions in the first half were in keeping with the company's policy of buying small to medium bolt-on acquisitions.

CRH spent €1.1 billion on acquisitions and development last year and Mr Eason said the group was well on track at least to equal that in the current period. The group would not comment on its performance in the current year but it said in May that the trading outlook was challenging. Mr Eason expects the company to post 5 per cent pre-tax growth in profits for the full year.