CRH is planning to issue a $600 million (€522 million) unsecured bond through its US subsidiary CRH America Inc.

The money raised in the issue will be used to help finance CRH's €693 million acquisition of Dutch business Cementbouw, which is expected to close before the end of the year.

While the completion of the deal is pending, the funds will go towards paying down debt under CRH's revolving term credit facilities.

Analysts said the bond issue, which will have a minimum maturity of 10 years, reflected sound treasury management within the building materials group.

In a separate development, CRH has signed a €2 million contract with Oracle for the provision of software aimed at increasing the consistency and efficiency of its operations.

The contract means CRH will be using the Linux open source software operating system rather than the rival Microsoft system, which usually ties the operator into using a more restricted range of software.

The software, which will be used at the company's Roadstone division in the Republic, may be expanded later to the rest of the CRH group.

Oracle is one of the world's largest enterprise software companies.

It employs approximately 1,000 people in the Republic.