Building materials group CRH has said its profits for the first half of this year will drop more sharply than it previously anticipated.
The company is the biggest on the Irish Stock Exchange by market value, but its shares closed over 7% lower in Dublin this evening.
In a trading statement ahead of its AGM, the company said trading in the first four months had been extremely tough. CRH said the effects of a weaker economic climate had been exacerbated by what it called 'the most severe winter for many years' in Europe and North America.
It added that continued poor weather in March and April meant that a normal pick-up in business in the second quarter of the year had not been as strong as expected.
But CRH struck a more optimistic note for the remainder of the year, saying more stable energy and raw materials costs along with benefits from the US stimulus package should encourage building activity.
CRH said cement volumes in Ireland were down 50% on the same period last year, but said economic weakness was a bigger contributor to this than bad weather.
CRH shares closed €1.44 lower at €18.40 in Dublin this evening, down over 7%.
CRH buys 'will focus on US, Europe'
CRH chairman Kieran McGowan later told shareholders that the company's rights issue earlier this year - which raised almost €1.3 billion - now gave it up to €3.5 billion to spend on potential acquisitions.
But he said the group's focus in terms of acquisition opportunities would be on the US and Europe. 'While we will continue to monitor the progress of our investments in India, China and Turkey, our main focus will be on the markets that have done us so well in the past,' he said.
Asked about the effects of the Obama administration's stimulus package, chief executive Myles Lee said CRH had a very big exposure to the infrastructural sector in the US, through highways and bridge construction. He said the company was beginning to see some early projects released under the stimulus package.
