Building materials giant CRH is to sell its Polish lime operations to Northern European group SigmaRoc for €100 million.
The Dublin-headquartered company, which last year moved its main stock market quotation from London to Wall Street and dropped its Irish listing, announced plans in November to sell its lime operations in Europe in a $1.1 billion (€1 billion) deal with SigmaRoc.
The deal included 16 operating locations in Ireland, Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. The businesses generated a total of $610 million in sales and earnings in 2022 before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $137 million.
CRH’s Irish lime business – Clogrennane Lime – operates from Clogrennane, Co Carlow and Toonagh in Co Clare. It employs 31 people, according to the company.
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SigmaRoc, a Northern European-quoted lime and limestone group, informed investors on Tuesday that it had entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire the Polish lime operations of CRH for a deferred consideration of €100 million.
The deal is conditional on clearance from the Polish Competition Office, but it is expected to close by the end of September.
[ CRH reports solid start to year on back of ‘positive pricing’Opens in new window ]
“The decision to divest at an attractive valuation follows a comprehensive review of the business and demonstrates CRH’s active approach to portfolio management,” said Albert Manifold, chief executive of CRH at the time of the initial agreement.
“The proceeds from the divestment will provide us with significant additional capital allocation opportunities to deliver further growth and value creation for our shareholders.”
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CRH reported a “solid start” to the year last month, with revenues up 2 per cent at $6.5 billion (€6.03 billion) in the first quarter.
The company, which does 75 per cent of its business in the US, said the performance was driven “by positive pricing, early-season activity and benign weather in key markets”.
CRH spent about $2.2 billion on acquisitions during the quarter, driven mainly by the purchase of a portfolio of cement operations in Texas. That integration is well under way and should deliver so-called run rate synergies of $60 million after three years.
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