CRH 9-month EBITDA Rises; Commences Phase 3 Of Share Buyback Program

(RTTNews) - CRH Plc. (CRH, CRH.L), a building materials group, reported Tuesday that for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2018, EBITDA, a key earnings metric, rose 8 percent to 2.5 billion euros from 2.3 billion euros in the year-ago period. Like-for-like EBITDA rose 2 percent.

The company noted that the growth in EBITDA reflected continued underlying growth in the Americas, despite adverse weather conditions in certain markets. Momentum remained positive in Europe, while demand improved in Asia.

Sales for the nine-month period grew 6 percent from the year-ago period to 19.9 billion euros. Like-for-like sales rose 3 percent, reflecting 4 percent growth in Americas, a 3 percent increase in Asia and a 1 percent increase in Europe.

Looking ahead, CRH said that based on the momentum seen in its businesses and including the benefit of acquisitions, it expects full-year 2018 EBITDA to be about 3.35 billion euros, up from 3.15 billion euros reported in 2017.

The company expects full-year profit before tax from continuing operations to be ahead of 2017's reported 1.9 billion euros.

As the company looks forward to 2019, it expects favorable market fundamentals to continue across its key markets.

As part of the 12 month 1 billion euros share buyback program announced on 25 April 2018, the Group has, to date, returned 700 million euros to shareholders through the repurchase of 23.8 million shares across two phases. The Group said it remains committed to the program and today announced the next phase, Phase 3.

Further, CRL said it's plan to deliver 300 basis points of EBITDA margin improvement and 7 billion euros of financial capacity by 2021 is progressing as planned and the company expects to see early signs of delivery in 2019.

As part of this growth plan, the company has identified approximately 100 million euros of structural cost savings.