Kingspan plans to invest €60m a year

Kingspan is planning to support its expansion plans by investing €60 million per annum on capital developments over coming years, the firm's chief executive, Gene Murtagh Jr, said yesterday.

Mr Murtagh also said that the Cavan-based company currently has the capacity to spend up to €300 million on acquisitions should suitable opportunities arise.

Such a spend would come in addition to the €98 million Kingspan agreed to pay for Century Homes in March. In May, the firm said it would pay up to €30 million for British-based panel manufacturer, Advanced Thermal Composites.

Much of Kingspan's acquisition and development firepower will be drawn from a €350 million syndicated credit facility arranged last December.

Mr Murtagh Jnr said the company's main current concentration was on organic growth. He identified the US market as a potential source of huge expansion for the company, particularly as it deepens its involvement in the offsite construction of buildings.

As part of this offsite business, Kingspan hopes to grow Century's three facilities in Britain to four or five, possibly through acquisition.

Kingspan is beginning to get its "feet under the table" at Century, Mr Murtagh said.

He indicated that the company would also allocate significant resources to expanding the range of building materials that can be used in offsite construction.

Mr Murtagh was speaking to reporters after the Kingspan agm in Dublin. Earlier, shareholders heard that sales at the building materials group in the first four months of this year had been "well ahead" of the same period of 2004.

The increase reflects both volume growth and the ability to pass on higher prices for raw materials in a timely fashion, Kingspan chairman, Eugene Murtagh Snr, told shareholders.

"It is anticipated that markets will remain reasonably stable in the immediate future," Mr Murtagh Snr said. The group is confident of growing operating profits and earnings per share this year, he added.

The agm itself was a tame affair, with just one shareholder sufficiently moved to ask a question of the board.

The same shareholder was so impressed by his company's performance that he presented a bottle of whiskey to the chairman.

Shares in Kingspan rose by 20 cents to close at €9.30 last night.