Irish building materials giant
The company said its US sales had benefitted from a weaker euro, and they expect the favourable exchange rates that helped boost its 2015 profits to continue this year.
CRH’s American businesses, which are mainly focused on the US, contributed €917 million to its €1.27 billion operating profits in 2015.
Last year’s global CRH sales were worth €23.6 billion - 25% up on the €18.9 billion achieved in 2014. The company’s EBITDA was up 35% in 2015 to €2.2 billion, compared to €1.6 billion the previous year.
“As a result of good performance from our heritage businesses and contributions from acquisitions, 2015 was a year of significant profit growth for CRH,” said CRH chief executive Albert Manifold.
“Strong cash generation resulted in our year-end debt metrics being ahead of target, and we are well on track to restoring these metrics to normalised levels during 2016.
“Recently there has been some uncertainty about the pace of global growth. Our focus remains on consolidating and building upon the gains made in 2015, and against this backdrop we believe 2016 will be a year of continued growth for the group.”
The board is recommending a final dividend of 44 cent per share, giving a total dividend of 62.5 cent for the year, maintained at last year’s level and covered 1.4 times by the earnings per share of 89.1 cent for 2015.
