Building materials group CRH has reported higher revenues and profits for the six months to the end of June with trading benefitting from a positive underlying backdrop in both North America and Europe.
CRH, the world's second-biggest building materials group, said its half year sales revenue rose by 15% to $14 billion, while profits after tax soared by 101% to $0.8 billion.
CRH also increased its interim dividend and said it has the firepower for more acquisitions after first-half earnings jumped 25% to $2 billion.
The company increased its dividend by 4.5% to 23 cents per share, having announced in June that it would be continuing its share buyback programme.
It said it has also spent $1.1 billion on acquisitions so far this year.
The Dublin-based group also said it expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to hit a record high in the seasonally stronger second half, with the improving economic backdrop in the US be further boosted by increased infrastructure funding.
Like for like first-half sales for the world's second-largest building materials supplier rose 3% year on year to $4.75 billion in its Americas materials division, where CRH is the biggest producer of asphalt for highway construction, and were up 17% in Europe materials.
The company said its earnings per share were 95% higher than last year at 100.1 cents, which it said reflected higher trading profits along with the profit on divestment of its Brazil cement operations.
It noted an uplift in demand in Ireland following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in the second quarter of 2021 resulted in sales significantly ahead of the first half of 2020.
"Strong sales volumes in all products and cost saving initiatives saw operating profit significantly outperform the first half of 2020," it added.
Albert Manifold, CRH's chief executive, said the strength and resilience of the company's business model once again delivered a "superior performance".
"Our integrated and solutions-focused approach leaves us uniquely positioned for the changing needs of construction, while our continued strong cash generation provides us with the flexibility to invest in future growth opportunities for our business," the CEO said.
"Based on current trading conditions and the positive momentum that we see across our markets, we expect second-half Group EBITDA to be ahead of a record prior year," he added.
CRH said that like-for-like sales in its Americas Materials division increased by 3% compared to 2020, driven by improved volumes of aggregates, cement and readymixed concrete, with price progress across all lines of business.
Its Europe Materials division saw like-for-like sales 17% ahead of 2020 and CRH said the strong volume growth compared to the same time last year which was heavily impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.
CRH's Building Products division benefited from strong residential repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) activity in North America and along with price progress across all platforms, it delivered like-for-like sales 8% ahead of 2020.
The company said its EBITDA for the six month period rose by 25% to $2 billion on the back of strong volume growth as well as a continued focus on price improvements and cost rationalisation which more than offset the impact of cost inflation.
It said that in its Americas Materials division, good price progression, focused cost control and operational efficiencies delivered like-for-like EBITDA 6% ahead of 2020.
Like-for-like EBITDA in Europe Materials was 52% ahead of 2020, mainly reflecting the strong volume performance in the company's key markets further supported by price progress and cost control.
Meanwhile, CRH said its Building Products division saw like-for-like EBITDA 12% ahead of 2020, due to good commercial management, profit improvement initiatives and cost discipline.
For the second half of the year, CRH said its Americas Materials Division is expected to continue to benefit from an improving economic backdrop and good underlying demand.
"In Europe Materials, we expect solid construction demand in our key markets against a backdrop of a strong prior year comparative," the company said.
"Our Building Products Division is expected to continue to benefit from positive residential demand, with early signs of recovery in non-residential activity," it said.
"Assuming normal weather patterns for the remainder of the construction season and against a backdrop of input cost inflation, we expect second-half Group EBITDA to be ahead of a record prior year comparative," it added.
CRH also said it has been able to get ahead of cost inflation by increasing prices and expected to continue to do so in the second half to keep expanding its margins.
Shares in the company moved higher in Dublin trade today.
