CRH H1 Profit Soars On Strong Sales Growth; Sees FY EBITDA Above EUR 3 Bln

(RTTNews) - Building materials group CRH plc. (CRH, CRH.L) reported Thursday that its first-half profit before tax surged to 407 million euros from last year's 63 million euros. Basic earnings per share were 33.8 cents, compared to 5.7 cents a year ago.

EBITDA, a key earnings metric, climbed 102 percent to 1.12 billion euros and EBITDA Margin improved to 8.8% from last year's 5.9%.

Proforma EBITDA increased 20% and proforma EBITDA margin was 9.0%, compared to 8.1% last year.

Sales revenues increased 35% to 12.7 billion from 9.37 billion a year ago. Proforma sales went up 8%, with increase of 3% in Europe, 13% in the Americas and 4% in Asia.

Further, the Board has decided to increase the interim dividend by 1.6% to 18.8c per share.

Looking ahead, Albert Manifold, Chief Executive, said, "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."