Irish building materials group CRH reaffirmed its annual forecasts on Friday, after reporting a "solid" start to the year, despite the winter season being traditionally unfavorable for its business.

Buoyed by a positive price effect and rather favorable weather in North America, sales rose by 2%, including 1% organic growth, to total 6.5 billion dollars in the first quarter.

The Dublin-based company also announced that it had posted a 15% increase in adjusted operating profit (Ebitda) to 445 million dollars for the first quarter.

On the strength of this performance, CRH confirmed its full-year adjusted Ebitda target of between $6.55 and $6.85 billion.

The group, which has just completed a $2.1 billion acquisition in the Texas cement business, says it has identified potential synergies of $60 million on an annualized basis from the operation.

In another positive development, the company plans to launch a new tranche of share buy-backs worth $300 million, after having completed $600 million in share acquisitions on the market since the beginning of the year.

Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the share price climbed almost 4% on Friday morning following these announcements.

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