CRH wins Company of the Year at Irish Times Business Awards

Listed building materials giant CRH won Company of the Year at the fifth annual Irish Times Business Awards, held in association with Bank of Ireland, at a ceremony in the Round Room of the Mansion House on Thursday.

The building materials giant has been a clear beneficiary of the post-pandemic construction boom, navigating significant supply chain and input price headwinds over in 2022 arising from Covid disruption and the war in Ukraine in the process.

In November, CRH said it was sticking to its $5.5 billion (€5.36 billion) full-year earnings forecast, even as its Europe Materials division had weakened as it grappled with higher energy prices and euro weakness against the dollar. CRH also announced plans to extend its share buyback programme (it has amounted to more than $4 billion since 2018), having increased its interim dividend earlier in 2022.

CRH chief executive Albert Manifold said last November that while residential construction markets on both sides of the Atlantic have weakened in recent times amid rising interest rates, spending on renovation and maintenance is holding up.

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CRH spent $3 billion on 21 acquisitions last year, the largest being the $1.9 billion purchase of US residential fencing and railing company Barrette Outdoor Living in July 2022.

Its largest divestment was the sale earlier of its Building Envelope business for $3.5 billion in cash. The Dublin-based company raised a total of $4 billion from asset sales.

Despite a slip its in share price last year against the backdrop of worsening macroeconomic forecasts, shares in CRH climbed more than 11 per cent in Dublin in the first month of 2023.

In December, the company announced the creation of a venture capital unit, CRH Ventures, which it says will have access to a $250 million (€235 million) innovation pot to invest in “cutting-edge technologies”.

The building materials giant said its new division will partner with construction and climate tech-focused companies “across the construction value chain”.

Its focus is on “cutting-edge technologies”, investing in businesses that are developing sustainable materials and “accelerating the industry’s path to decarbonisation”, CRH said in a statement.