CRH FY17 Pre-tax Profit Rises; Lifts Dividend - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - CRH Plc. (CRH, CRH.L), an international building materials group, reported Thursday that its fiscal 2017 profit before tax rose to 2.01 billion euros from 1.74 billion euros last year. Basic earnings per share were 226.8 euro cents, up from 150.2 euro cents a year ago.

Excluding the one-off impact of changes in corporate tax rates in the U.S. and the Swiss pension plan past service credit, adjusted earnings per share for the year were 166.2 cents, 11 percent ahead of 2016.

Sales revenue for the year rose 2 percent to 27.56 billion euros from 27.10 billion euros last year.

EBITDA, a key earnings metric, grew 6 percent to 3.31 billion euros from 3.13 billion euros. Like-for-like EBITDA rose 3 percent.

Further, the company said its board is recommending a final dividend of 48.8 cents per share. This would give a total dividend of 68.0 cents for the year, an increase of 5 percent over last year.

The company said it proposes to pay the final dividend on 4 May 2018 to shareholders registered at the close of business on 9 March 2018. A scrip dividend alternative will be offered to shareholders.