This brings the total 2011 development spend to €0.6 billion.
In Europe Materials, three acquisitions and one investment totalling €195 million have been made.
These include a significant investment in cement grinding capacity in Belgium complements existing activities in the Benelux; strategic add-on in Ukraine for recently commissioned state-of-the-art cement plant and ready mixed concrete bolt-on acquisitions in Finland and continued development by associate Yatai Building Materials in north-eastern China.
CRH’s Europe products and distribution have seen four acquisitions totalling €28 million, while Americas Materials has seen nine acquisitions worth €112 million.
Active second-half bolt-on programme, adding approximately 0.25 billion tonnes of aggregates reserves, improving existing market positions and bringing total 2011 investment by this division to approximately US$0.3 billion.
Americas products and distribution has seen six acquisitions valued at €72 million including the addition of 24 distribution branches in four transactions in the second half of 2011, in particular the acquisition in December of United Products expanded CRH’s existing positions in the Northern Plains states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Myles Lee, CRH chief executive, said: “The bolt-on transactions announced today are very much in keeping with the group’s strategy to acquire businesses which add value to our existing operations or which expand our footprint in developed markets where we see opportunities for further growth. Meanwhile we continued to grow our activities in developing economies by investing through our 26% associate in north-eastern China and through a strategic bolt-on acquisition in Ukraine.”
