Dublin-listed building company CRH spent €367 million on 17 separate investments and acquisitions in the second half of 2010, the company said this morning in an update.
The increased investment in the second half of the year is in addition to 14 acquisition and investment transactions completed in the first half of 2010 and deferred acquisition payments arising from prior years' acquisitions.
This brings the group's total acquisition and investment spend for the year to approximately €536 million.
The second half spend includes three acquisitions and two investments in associate businesses in Europe totalling €235 million and twelve acquisitions in the US totalling €132 million.
Some €84 million of the European investment in the second half of the year was took place in the company's Europe materials division, adding incremental annualised sales of €81 million to the division. The Europe products and distribution division spent €151 million, generating an estimated €450 million in combined incremental annualised sales.
In the US, €108 million was spent by the Americas materials division in the second half of 2010 giving rise to incremental annualised sales of $116 million. €24 million of the company's spend in the second half of the year related to the Americas products and distribution division, through three bolt-on transactions, resulting in sales from $40 million.
CRH chief executive Myles Lee said that CRH's full-year spend of €540 million includes a total of 28 traditional bolt-on acquisitions, expanding in particular the company's materials footprints in Switzerland and the United States and substantially enhancing its presence in the attractive German distribution market.
"These 2010 acquisitions contribute incremental annualised sales of €0.8 billion of which approximately €0.2 billion will be reflected in our 2010 results."
