Building materials giant CRH said it expects sales, earnings and margins to rise in the first half after a particularly strong start to the year in the US, though the European backdrop remains challenging.
CRH, which makes about 75% of its profits in the US, announced plans in March to buy back shares worth $3 billion, a more than threefold increase on last year after record sales and profit for 2022.
It said today that sales in its two main US units - Americas materials solutions and Americas building solutions - were up 10% and 22% respectively year on year in the seasonally quieter first quarter.
It cited robust pricing in materials solutions and both good pricing progress and resilient underlying demand in building solutions, where it is a major player in water, energy and communications infrastructure projects.
"In our Americas segments we expect robust infrastructure demand, good activity in key non-residential segments, continued pricing progress and positive contributions from acquisitions in the first half," CRH said in a trading update today.
Sales in Europe materials solutions were up a more modest 6% while Europe building solutions revenue fell 1%.
CRH said that a more challenging backdrop in Europe is being driven by continued inflationary pressures and some slowdown in the new-build residential sector.
It noted that like-for-like sales in its Road Solutions business were in line with 2022 as pricing progress in the UK, Ireland and Poland offset lower activity levels due to adverse weather conditions.
After recommending moving its primary listing to the US in March, the Dublin-based company said it would seek shareholder approval to do so at an emergency general meeting on June 8.
The company also said today that it continued its $3 billion share buyback programme during the first quarter and returned a further $0.3 billion of cash to shareholders.
It said it expects its total buybacks in the first half of 2023 to reach about $1 billion.
"We had a positive start to the year in a seasonally quiet trading period. While some adverse weather conditions were experienced in Q1, sales and EBITDA were ahead, underpinned by the continued execution of our integrated solutions strategy and further commercial progress across our markets," CRH's chief executive Albert Manifold said.
"Looking ahead, despite some ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and an inflationary cost environment, we expect first-half sales, EBITDA and margin to be ahead of the prior year period," the CEO added.
Shares in the company were lower in Dublin trade today.
