Building materials company CRH today reported a better than predicted 25% rise in yearly pre-tax profits and said it was confident of growth prospects despite an expected moderation of growth in some markets.
Earnings per share were up 22% to 135.8 cents. The company also said that trading profit rose by 36% to 931 million euros for the year 2000.
Overall results for mainland Europe increased significantly during the year. Sales for the period were up 28.5% to 2,031.2 million and trading profit saw a hike of 53.5%. However, sales in the UK were down 18% to 697.8 million euros and trading profit fell by almost 6% to 56 million euros.
Activity in the US was also strong with sales up by 47.6% to 5.5 billion euros and trading profit up 38.5% to 533.4 million.
Construction activity in Ireland recorded its seventh year of strong growth. Sales for the year were up 11.8% to 670.7 million euros and trading profit was up by 20.7% to 138.5 million euros.
Chief Executive Liam O'Mahony said in a statement that the company expected improvements from its existing businesses and added that with the full year impact of businesses acquired during the year, CRH was looking forward to continued progress in 2001.
Mr O'Mahony said CRH expected further growth in Ireland, though he admitted that this would be at more moderate levels than in recent years. But he predicted that activity in Britain was likely to remain flat.
'Since December 31, 2000, trading has been satisfactory and in line with out expectations,' he said.
The board has recommended a final dividend of 16.10 cents to give a total dividend for 2000 of 22.2 cents - an increase of 14% on 1999's dividend figure.
CRH also announced this morning that it plans to raise almost 1.1 billion euros through a rights issue. The new funds will be used to finance more acquisitions. During the year, the company bought Swiss cement maker Jura for 425 million euro - its biggest purchase of 2000.
As markets reacted to the rights issue, CRH shares fell by over 7% in Dublin by this afternoon. They were down 1.44 euros to 19 euros by 3.30pm.
