CRH profit to decline, not planning share buyback

Irish buildings materials giant CRH said the decline in its first-half earnings will be bigger than expected after bad weather hurt construction markets in Europe and North America.

At the company's agm in Dublin this morning Kieran McGowan told shareholders the company was not planning a share buy-back programme. He said the company could see "attractive" acquisition opportunities becoming available over the next 18 months.

In a statement released before the agm the company said a normal seasonal pick-up in demand during the second quarter has not been as strong as expected so far this year.

It said trading in the first four months had been extremely tough and said the impact of a weaker economic climate had been exacerbated by what it called “the most severe winter for many years” in Europe and North America.

Its Americas division, which supplies about half of group revenue, was hurt by poor weather and weaker private-sector demand, CRH said.

CRH shares fell over 6.5 per cent by 11.40am in Dublin to €18.55 giving the company a market capitalisation of €12.7 billion, the largest weighting on the Irish Stock Exchange. The overall Iseq was down less than 1 per cent.

CRH said cement volumes in Ireland were down 50 per cent on the same period last year, but said economic weakness was a bigger contributor to this than bad weather.

The company said more stable energy and raw materials costs coupled with the impact of the US stimulus package should encourage building activity over the course of the year.

The company said a recent right issue which had raised €1.24 billion meant the company was well placed to “take advantage of appropriate development opportunities”.

In a statement to investors Davy said it was likely to reduce its full-year forecasts by 5 to 10 per cent as profit “as profits in the first half of the year are likely to be below previous expectations”.