A Spanish court has confirmed that CRH is the valid owner of a 22 per cent shareholding in the Catalan cement group, Uniland.

The Commercial Court of Barcelona found in favour of the Irish building materials company yesterday, confirming the legality of its shareholding.

But sources close to the situation believe that CRH still faces an uphill task in its bid to secure full control of Uniland, 51 per cent of which was acquired earlier this month by the Spanish cement group, Portland Valderrivas.

A CRH spokesman said yesterday that the company had begun legal action earlier this month to have the proposed sale to Portland Valderrivas declared null and void and to have CRH's pre-emption rights on those shares confirmed.

But sources close to the deal say the Irish company could find it difficult to unravel the transaction, which is due to close next month providing it receives regulatory approval. It is understood that in acquiring its stake, Portland used the same method as employed by CRH last year and upheld by the Spanish courts yesterday.

CRH used three investment vehicles to build its shareholding, thereby circumventing company by-laws that stipulate that any selling shareholder must first offer the stake to the company or its other shareholders.

Because it did not buy the shares directly, but instead purchased holding companies that owned them, CRH argued the by-laws did not apply.

The stake was acquired and held through three investment vehicles, Wimec, Sagarra and Freixas. They subsequently acquired a further 3.9 per cent of Uniland's shares, registration of which was expected to follow yesterday's ruling. This would confirm CRH's ownership of 26 per cent of Uniland, which was being challenged by the company's founding family shareholders.

Ironically, Portland Valderrivas is now expected to employ the same defence as CRH, arguing that its initial stake was purchased indirectly through an investment vehicle that then went on to acquire more shares directly from other shareholders.

In a further twist, CRH is set to oppose the Portland deal by adopting the arguments used by the family shareholders against it, claiming the same pre-emption rights that they had argued it breached.

But Spanish sources said it was hard to see the Barcelona court ruling against Portland, given that it had just upheld CRH's shareholding.

Observers are now watching closely to see whether Portland Valderrivas, a division of the Madrid-listed construction company Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas (FCC), will try to do a deal to buy out CRH.

The Spanish group paid €1.09 billion for its 51 per cent stake and has an option to buy a further 22.5 per cent at the same price. The deal values CRH's holding at €560 million, a significant premium to the €300 million paid by Irish group last December.

Markets sources have already suggested that CRH, which is currently in talks to buy the US-based road firm Ashland Paving and Construction, might be tempted to sell. Given that the US deal could cost CRH as much as $1.5 billion (€1.2 billion), they believe it might choose to realise the profit from Uniland and use the proceeds to fund the US acquisition if it goes ahead.

Shares in CRH were unchanged yesterday at €24.90.