CRH 9-month like-for-like earnings up 7%

Building materials group CRH said it expected full year core earnings to rise by 23% to more than €4.15bn (£3.55bn) after a strong performance in the first nine months of 2019 and despite a Brexit-related downturn in the UK.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 27%, or 7% on a like-for-like basis, to €3.2bn in the nine months to the end of September. Cumulative nine-month sales were up 4% to to €21.8bn helped by the impact of acquisitions, including the €3bn in 2018 of US cement company Ash Grove.

Third quarter trading in CRH's Americas materials division benefited from more favourable weather conditions than experienced in the first half of the year, the company said on Tuesday.

“As we look ahead to 2020, we expect solid market fundamentals to continue across our key markets. We expect full-year profit before tax from continued and discontinued operations to be ahead of 2018 (2018: €1.9bn),” CRH said in a trading statement.

Nine-month sales in CRH's European materials unit rose 6% year on year, helped by good pricing momentum and solid volumes growth. However, UK activity continued to decline amidst Brexit-related uncertainty.

Nine-month like-for-like EBITDA was 2% ahead of the same period last year, reflecting increased pricing and the benefit of performance improvement initiatives partly offset by continued market disruption in the UK. Full-year like-for-like EBITDA growth was also expected to be approximately 2%, CRH said.