Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Irish Building materials group CRH is to pay more than €100m for a Belgian cement business, having already spent €186m on 21 acquisitions and joint ventures in the first half of the year.
The acquisition of the VVM business is subject to regulatory approval. CRH chief executive Myles Lee said the purchase represented an “important strategic opportunity” for CRH’s existing Cementbouw trading and readymixed concrete business in the Benelux.
VVM, which is family-owned, operates two cement grinding mills in Belgium and two readymixed plants — one in Belgium and the other in France.
In an update, CRH said its Europe Materials division spent €40m in the first six months. It boosted its shareholding in Grupa Silikaty, Poland’s second-largest producer of sand-lime brick, from 75 t%o 90%.
CRH’s joint venture in Portugal, Secil, also acquired Lafarge’s Portuguese aggregates and readymixed concrete business that includes 30 concrete plants, four quarries and 56 million tonnes of aggregates reserves.
CRH’s Europe Products and Distribution division spent €20m in the first half buying companies in Belgium, Australia and the Netherlands.
Lee said that the pipeline of potential acquisitions for the group remained “good” and that the group remained ready to capitalise on opportunities.
