Irish building materials company CRH has sold its American Distribution business to Beacon Roofing Supply for $2.63bn in cash.
Americas Distribution has been part of the CRH Group for over 20 years, and according to the firm has "historically executed a growth strategy based on focused acquisitions, selective greenfields and investments in private label products".
CRH say that while Americas Distribution had been performing well and had made returns on investments in recent years, but the "absence of acquisition opportunities" resulted in a decision to sell at an attractive price.
Americas Distribution reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $177m on sales of $2.7bn in the first half of 2017.
The proceeds from the sale will be reallocated to value creating acquisitions and investments.
In this vein, CRH’s Europe Heavyside business has announced that it will acquire Fels, a leading German lime and aggregates business for $708m.
Fels has nine production locations in Germany and one each in the Czech Republic and Russia, and has "leading market positions in the lime markets in each of these areas and over 1 billion tonnes of high quality limestone reserves".
CRH is a leading lime producer in the UK, Poland and Ireland with annual production volumes of 1.2 million tonnes and sales of $212m.
The integration of Fels with CRH’s existing business will boost CRH to the number two position in the European lime market while providing a platform for further growth.
In 2016 Fels reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $82.6m on sales of $306.7m.
Albert Manifold, CRH chief executive, said: "These transactions announced today demonstrate the execution of CRH’s strategy of adding value through the efficient allocation and reallocation of capital, and in particular the deployment of capital into an attractive growth market in Europe, while maintaining our financial discipline".
Image courtesy of CRH
