Significant profit growth for CRH
Company reports good performance from heritage businesses and contributions from acquisitions in 2015
LAST year saw significant profit growth for CRH plc, the Dublin-based international building materials group, thanks to good performance from the firm’s heritage businesses and contributions from acquisitions.
In particular, the businesses acquired from Lafarge and Holcim (LH assets) made a strong contribution with post-acquisition sales and EBITDA ahead of expectations.
For the year ended 31 December 2015, CRH’s sales were 25% ahead of 2014 at €23.6 billion (2014: €18.9 billion).
On a continuing operations basis, excluding the impact of divestments and of the LH assets, and with the benefit of positive currency impacts, sales were 17% higher than 2014.
An increase of 30% in the Americas reflected the strength of the US dollar versus the euro and the continued positive momentum in construction markets, while sales from continuing operations in Europe were 3% ahead of last year.
EBITDA from continuing operations in the Americas was 51% ahead of 2014, with CRH’s continuing European operations delivering EBITDA growth of 4%.
The LH assets delivered profits ahead of expectations in the post-acquisition period, with reported EBITDA of €171 million after charging transaction/one-off costs of €197 million.
Including this contribution, and the impact of divestments, CRH’s EBITDA for the year amounted to €2,219 million, a 35% increase on 2014 (€1,641 million).
Commenting on the results, CRH’s chief executive, Albert Manifold (pictured), said: ‘As a result of good performance from our heritage businesses and contributions from acquisitions, 2015 was a year of significant profit growth for CRH.
‘Strong cash generation resulted in our year-end debt metrics being ahead of target, and we are well on track to restoring these metrics to normalized levels during 2016.’
Commenting on recent uncertainty about the pace of global growth, Mr Manifold said: ‘Our focus remains on consolidating and building upon the gains made in 2015, and against this backdrop we believe 2016 will be a year of continued growth for the Group.’
