CRH has bought a 46.9 per cent stake in Holding Cement Polski, a Polish cement group, for a total of 55.7 million deutschmarks (£22.4 million), according to the Polish vendor.

The stake was acquired from Elektrim SA, a Polish industrial and trading conglomerate. According to its 1997 annual report, CRH already held a 43 per cent stake in the company so the recent purchase takes its interest in the cement producer to 89.9 per cent.

Cement Polski owns a 75 per cent stake in one of Poland's largest cement producers, Cementownia Ozarow SA, which it acquired in 1995. In turn, Cementownia Ozarow owns a 20 per cent stake in Gen Bud, a leading builders merchant in the Warsaw area with ambitions to build a national presence.