CRH development strategy update
Company confirms total disposal proceeds of €1 billion and total acquisition spend of €8 billion in 2015
CRH plc, the Dublin-based international building materials group, say they received total disposal proceeds of approximately €1 billion in 2015.
This comprises the previously announced sale of the Group’s clay and concrete products operations in the UK, and the clay business in the US (€0.43 billion), plus several additional divestments across Europe and the Americas for total proceeds of around €0.53 billion.
During 2015, the Group also completed 20 bolt-on acquisition and investment transactions. These deals, together with the acquisition of assets from Lafarge and Holcim, the C.R. Laurence acquisition and net deferred consideration payments, brought development spend for 2015 to approximately €8 billion.
Commenting on these developments, CRH’s chief executive, Albert Manifold (pictured), said: ‘Portfolio management, and in particular the reallocation of capital from lower-growth areas into core businesses for growth, is a cornerstone of our value-creation model.
‘We are pleased with our progress in 2015, which brought cumulative proceeds from our multi-year divestment programme to almost €1.4 billion, while our targeted bolt-on investments strengthened our existing businesses and complemented the major acquisition activity which saw total acquisition spend of approximately €8 billion in 2015.’
