The company`s first international move took place in the same year with the purchase of Van Neerbos in the Netherlands. The acquisition added specific product activities as well as a sales transaction. Further acquisitions followed in the 1970s, including a move to the UK and Scotland in particular with the purchase of building materials trading group Henderson in 1978. CRH confirmed in 2013 that it was interested in exploring other options in India. [28] In 2015, CRH remained listed in London and Dublin. [29] In February 2015, CRH agreed to purchase British building materials manufacturer Lafarge Tarmac. [30] In 2015, CRH acquired $6.5 billion in assets from the new LafargeHolcim. Following this acquisition, CRH`s net debt almost tripled to €6.6 billion. [31] The acquisition of LafargeHolcim made CRH “the third largest building materials group in the world by market value.” A week after CEO Albert Manifold announced that CRH was looking for major acquisitions, CRH paid $1.3 billion in August 2015 for CR Laurence, a California-based glazing company. [29] At that time, CRH already had a similar business in North America called BuildingEnvelope with 4,500 employees, which it wanted to integrate into CRH. [29] In November 2015, CRH generated approximately one-fifth of its operating income from U.S.
infrastructure. [32] 1998: A strategic repositioning in the UK clay brick distribution market took place with the acquisition of the listed company Ibstock (UK) and the associated activities of Glen Gery (US). In Europe, the acquisition of Raboni Matériaux de Construction has enabled it to position itself on the market for the repair, maintenance and improvement of residential buildings in the Paris region. The year 1978 also marked CRH`s entry into the United States, where it acquired the Utah-based Amcor concrete products group. This acquisition served as the basis for the company`s U.S. division, which adopted the name Oldcastle Building Products. Nevertheless, the company had already pursued its expansion policy of retaining the names and management of its acquisitions to take advantage of each company`s local affiliations. Ireland`s boom years helped the construction industry like no other, and they didn`t help a company like CRH. CRH`s largest acquisition to date took place in July 2003, when the company agreed to pay €693 million to acquire Dutch Cementbouw. The acquisition, which included Cementbouw`s own production of building materials and market-leading DIY stores, gave CRH a dominant position in the Dutch building materials market.
However, the Cementbouw purchase was only part of a company`s record of more than €1.6 billion in purchases this year. In 1998, Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) voted against an inquiry into why an asset capable of generating a return of £48 million in sand and gravel reserves was sold in 1991 without a public tender for £1.25 million to Roadstone, a subsidiary of CRH. [72] CRH bought 25 companies in the United States last year, the largest being Mount Hope Rock Products in Wharton, New Jersey, for $144 million. CRH`s American holding company, Oldcastle, is the leading US producer of asphalt, the 4th largest producer of aggregates and No. 15 for ready-mixed concrete. It has companies that are regional leaders in glass, brick and prefabricated elements. In the New York area, Tilcon and New York own Trap Rock, major suppliers of aggregates and gravel for construction. CRH`s expansion also included an ever-expanding product line, such as entering the U.S. glass manufacturing market with the purchase of 13 plants at a total cost of $135 million in 1990. The company has also strengthened its presence in U.S. masonry with the acquisition of three companies this year, including Bethesda, Maryland-based Betco Block & Products Inc.
At that time, the company`s balance sheet already included about 60 acquisitions. CRH`s acquisition expenses in 1999 amounted to more than €1.5 billion ($1.3 billion), double the previous year, as the company continues to grow in size. Don Goodson retired the following year and was replaced by Liam O`Mahoney as the company`s managing director. O`Mahoney maintained his predecessor`s acquisition policy, describing the group`s screening and buying process to the Financial Times as saying: “We try to make ourselves user-friendly to embedded owner-contractors. We support hidden talent in a family business where a son`s rake should take over. In 2006, CRH invested in a cement plant in the Heilongjiang region of China. [25] On this basis, the company acquired a 26% stake in Jilin Yatai Group and a 49% option to acquire in the future. [26] In 2008, CRH agreed to acquire a 50% stake in India`s My Home Industries Ltd. for €290 million ($452 million). [27] For a company employing 50,000 people in 22 countries, including a growing presence in the United States, CRH maintains a remarkably low attitude. Its shares account for 13% of the total value of all shares traded on the Irish Stock Exchange, behind the country`s two giant banks, but its name and logo are nowhere to be found on its huge fleets of concrete mixers and dump trucks.
CRH is a huge roll-up built by acquiring dozens of small, usually family-owned businesses in a once fragmented industry. In a deal that critics questioned in 1991, the government sold 83 hectares of picturesque forest in Glen Ding, south of Dublin, to the company for €1.6 million without a public tender after rejecting other potential buyers; Quarries on the property have since been valued at €89 million. CRH entered the United States in 1978 by acquiring Amcor, a concrete products group in Utah, which would later form the basis of the company`s U.S. division, now called Oldcastle Inc.
