CRH reorganisation makes €1.4 billion for 2015
11 January 2016
Irish-based CRH said it had made around €1.4 billion in 2015 by divesting parts of the group.
This includes the sale of its clay and concrete products operations in the UK and the group’s clay business in the US for €43 million, plus several additional sales across Europe and America for a total of €53 million.
During 2015, the group also completed 20 acquisitions and investments. These deals, together with the acquisition of assets from Lafarge and Holcim, the CR Laurence acquisition (completed in August for €1.2 billion) and deferred payments, brings its spend for 2015 to around €8 billion.
Albert Manifold, CEO, 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.”
The company’s heavyside business completed 13 divestments in 2015, the largest of which was the disposal of CRH’s 25% equity stake in its Israeli operation.
Its lightside business completed one acquisition in Australia and a small further investment in the Netherlands. It also set up a joint venture with its existing readymixed concrete operations in St Petersburg, Russia, in addition to acquiring a concrete paviour production plant in Poland. Its distribution business also acquired the remaining 50% of an aluminium wholesale business from its joint-venture partner in the Netherlands.
Its materials division sold four non-core operations and completed an asset exchange, while its products division sold six operations across the US, including the disposal of Merchant Metals, a national distributor of fencing systems and perimeter control products.
Nine acquisitions and three investments were completed by its US materials division, adding sales of €183.6 million and over 253 million tonnes of aggregate reserves. The company’s US products division completed three transactions, adding sales of €50.4 million.
