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CRH, Ireland’s largest publicly-quoted company, sees its full-year earnings topping €3 billion for the first time ever after reporting first half figures that were slightly ahead of the its recently raised guidance.

The building materials giant’s interim earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation more than doubled to €1.12 billion, buoyed by its biggest ever acquisition last year. The Dublin-based company raised its first-half guidance by 10 per cent to €1.1 billion.

“With continued positive momentum in the Americas and the modest impact of early-stage economic recovery in Europe, and assuming normal weather conditions for the remainder of the season, we expect further progress in the second half with full year reported ebitda in excess of €3 billion,” chief executive Albert Manifold said.

Analysts, on average are forecasting ebitda of €3.1 billion for the group for 2016 as a whole.

Shares in the group rose 1 per cent to €29.40 in early trading in Dublin on Thursday.

Last year was transformational for CRH as it bought €6.5 billion of assets hived off by European cement giant LafargeHolcim to appease competition authorities. CRH subsequently sold €1 billion of assets last year as it digested the deal. In the first half of this year, the company spend €150 million on acquisitions and investments and raised €65 million from the sale of surplus property, plant and equipment.

CRH’s net debt rose by €400 million over the course of the six months to €7.1 billion, which equates to 2.5 times the group’s ebitda over the last twelve months.

“CRH’s operating performance continues to benefit from recovering construction markets in both the Americas and Europe,” said Barry Dixon, an analyst with Davy. He sees the group’s growth in profits, together with strong cash management, pushing its debt below 2 times ebitda by the year end.

CRH’s share price, up about 8 per cent since the Brexit referendum, is hovering around highs not seen since 2007, amid speculation that the company may rejoin the keenly-followed Euro Stoxx 50 index next week. The company was relegated from Europe’s most prestigious stock market benchmark two years ago in favour of Nokia, the Finnish technology group.

The group raised its interim dividend by 1.6 per cent to 18.8 cents.

In Europe, trading conditions in the first half reflected the modest impact of early-stage economic recovery.

“While the impact of the recent UK vote to leave the EU remains unclear for the medium term, the outlook for our European operations for the remainder of this year is for a continuation of first-half trends,” CRH said.

CRH sees “positive momentum” in the first half in its the construction market on the other side of the Atlantic continuing into the second half.

“Although a strong finish for our Americas business in 2015 means that the second-half comparatives for this year are expected to be somewhat tougher,” it said.

In Asia, the company sees positive demand for its products in the Philippines continuing for the remainder of the year.

Source: www.irishtimes.com

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