CRH FY18 Pre-tax Profit Edges Lower; Sees Progress In FY19

(RTTNews) - CRH Plc (CRH, CRH.L), an international building materials group, reported Thursday that its fiscal 2018 profit before tax from continuing operations was 1.862 billion euros, compared to 1.867 billion euros last year. Earnings per share from continuing operations declined to 172.0 cents from 214.0 cents last year.

However, Group profit for the year rose 31 percent to 2.52 billion pounds from 1.91 billion pounds last year. Basic earnings per share were 302.4 cents, up from 226.8 euro cents a year ago.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the year were 172.0 cents, 11 percent ahead of 154.3 cents in 2017.

Sales revenue for the year rose 6 percent to 26.79 billion euros from 25.22 billion euros last year.

EBITDA, a key earnings metric, grew 7 percent to 3.37 billion euros from 3.15 billion euros last year. Like-for-like EBITDA rose 3 percent.

Further, the company said its board is recommending a final dividend of 52.4 cents per share. This would give a total dividend of 72.0 cents for the year, an increase of 6 percent over last year.

The company said it proposes to pay the final dividend on 30 April 2019 to shareholders registered at the close of business on 15 March 2019. In connection with the share buyback program, CRH announced the suspension of the scrip dividend alternative on 2 May 2018. Therefore the final dividend will be paid wholly in cash.

Looking ahead, the company said that fiscal 2019 will be a year of progress and further growth for the Group.