26th Feb 2015 07:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - CRH PLC Thursday reported strong growth in operating profit for 2014, as a recovery in its US markets gained momentum and markets in Europe stabilised, and it predicted a strong 2015 as it looks to take advantage of falling commodity prices and further improvements in its markets.
The Irish building materials company said it swung to a pretax profit of EUR761 million in 2014, compared with a loss of GBP215 million in 2013 when it had booked a EUR755 million impairment charge related to a review of its asset portfolio. Its earnings before interest and tax excluding impairments rose to EUR966 million from EUR750 million as revenue increased to EUR18.91 billion, from EUR18.03 billion.
Despite the return to earnings and margin growth, the company decided to keep its dividend for the year unchanged at EUR62.5 cents.
"2014 was a year of strong strategic, operational and financial progress for CRH. We were able to use the underlying strength of our business to capitalise on the recovering markets and deliver a return to profit and margin growth. With further improvements expected in market conditions across our main geographies, together with easing commodity prices, the benefits of cost efficiencies and a favourable exchange translation effect, we expect 2015 to be another year of progress," Chief Executive Albert Manifold said in a statement.
The company had initiated a cost reduction programme back in 2007, and said it had delivered a further EUR118 million of incremental savings in 2014. It said it is on track to save a further EUR75 million in 2015, which would bring the cumulative total to EUR2.6 billion by the end of the year.
Costs for implementing the programme were EUR51 million in 2014, down from EUR71 million in 2013, meaning the total cost of implementations currently stands at EUR610 million.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
CRH