CRH Plc H1 Pre-tax Profit Rises On Sales Growth; Sees Progress In FY

(RTTNews) - CRH Plc. (CRH, CRH.L), a building materials group, reported Thursday that its first-half profit before tax from continuing operations increased 5 percent to 497 million euros from 475 million euros last year.

Earnings per share from continuing operations were 45.0 cents, 11% ahead of 2017.

Group profit, however, surged to 1.46 billion euros from last year's 372 million euros. The latest results included profit from discontinued operations of 1.08 billion euros.

EBITDA, a key earnings metric, edged up 1 percent to 1.13 billion euros. Like-for-like EBITDA was ahead 1%. EBITDA margin was 9.5%, same as last year.

Sales revenue for the period grew 1 percent to 11.94 billion euros from 11.85 billion euros last year. Like-for-like sales were ahead 2%, up 1% in Europe, and up 3% in the Americas, but down 2% in Asia.

Further, the Board has decided to increase the interim dividend by 2.1 percent to 19.6c per share. It is proposed to pay the interim dividend on 26 September 2018 to shareholders registered at the close of business on 7 September 2018.

Looking ahead, the company continues to expect another year of progress for the Group, despite continuing currency headwinds.