Irish construction company CRH said this morning its pretax profits for last year exceeded the €1 billion mark for the first time.
The profit climbed to €1.017 billion, up 18 per cent from €864 million the previous year.
CRH said the outlook for 2005 was positive despite volatile currency and energy markets.
According to the company, earnings per share, excluding goodwill, climbed 20 per cent to 163.1 cents from 136.2 cents the previous year. Sales grew 16 per cent to €12.82 billion.
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"While there is continuing volatility in energy and currency markets which could impact adversely on economies as the year progresses, the current 2005 outlook for our markets is on the whole positive," CRH said in a statement.