22nd Aug 2019 08:05
(Alliance News) - Building materials firm CRH PLC boosted its dividend and extended its share buyback programme on Thursday after profit and revenue both jumped amid "good" performances from across the business.
For the six months ended June, pretax profit widened 42% to EUR707 million from EUR497 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 11% to EUR13.22 billion from EUR11.94 billion the year before.
"On the back of our strategic initiatives, CRH has delivered significant profit growth in the first half of 2019, with a good performance in our heritage business and strong contributions from recent acquisitions," CRH Chief Executive Officer Albert Manifold said.
CRH proposed a 20 cents per share dividend, up 2.0% from 19.6 cents the year prior.
The FTSE 100-listed firm also proposed to extend its share buyback programme by EUR350 million, with completion of this fresh tranche to be by the end of 2019. CRH has already repurchased EUR550 million in shares since the start of 2019.
"With our continued strong cash generation and financial discipline, we expect year-end debt metrics to be below normalised levels," Manifold added. "We anticipate further progress in the second half of the year with benefits from positive underlying momentum in all divisions as well as good contributions from acquisitions."
Shares in CRH were 0.2% higher at 2,676.00 pence in London on Thursday.
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