The story
1970–1980s: formation and listings
CRH (Cement Roadstone Holdings) was established in 1970 through the merger of Cement Ltd (est. 1936) and Roadstone Ltd (est. 1949). The company listed on the Irish Stock Exchange in 1973.
CRH entered the United States market in 1978 by acquiring Amcor, a Utah-based concrete products group, which became Oldcastle Inc. The company expanded its U.S. presence in 1985 with the acquisition of Callanan Industries, a New York State aggregates producer.
1990s: early Europe and US acquisitions
During the 1990s, CRH expanded into France through acquisitions including Raboni SA and Prefaest SA.
The company entered Eastern European markets in 1995 with the purchase of Holding Cement Polski in Poland, marking its first cement manufacturing operation outside Ireland. Further expansion included operations in Ukraine, including the purchase of Mykolaiv Cement and in Finland through the acquisition of Finnsementti Oy and Lohja Rudus Oy. In the U.S., acquisitions included Betco Block & Products Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland in 1990; Balf Co. in Connecticut, Lebanon Rock in Pennsylvania, Keating in Massachusetts and Sullivan Lafarge in New York state in 1994. CRH also acquired Allied Building Products, which specialized in roofing and cladding products and Tilcon, a major road construction specialist in the Northeast United States in 1996.
2000–2010
The company entered Switzerland in 2000 with the €425 million purchase of Jura Group, adding cement, concrete and aggregates operations, as well as a regional distribution network. The following year, CRH acquired a 25% stake in Mashav, holding company for Nesher Israel Cement Works, the only cement producer in that country. In July 2003, the company bought Cementbouw - a do-it-yourself store chain and building materials producer in the Netherlands for €693 million. In 2004, CRH paid €429 million to purchase a 49% stake in Portuguese cement producer Secil. It sold that stake in 2012 for €574 million following a ruling on a shareholder dispute by an arbitration tribunal at the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce.
CRH acquired Shelly Group of Ohio in 2000, Mount Hope Rock Products, based in New Jersey in 2002 and Ashland Paving And Construction (APAC) of Atlanta in 2006, the company's largest deal.
In 2007, CRH purchased four companies worth a total of $350 million (€251 million) to add to its US materials division: these companies were Conrad Yelvington Distributors Inc. (CYDI), Eugene Sand & Gravel, Cessford Construction and McMinn's Asphalt and Prospect Aggregates. Also in 2008, CRH agreed to purchase a landscape paver, Pavestone, for $540 million.
The company entered Asian markets with investments in China's Heilongjiang region by acquiring a 26% stake in the Jilin Yatai Group (2006) as well as 50% of India's My Home Industries Ltd (2008).
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2011–2019: Americas, Europe and emerging markets
CRH confirmed in 2013 that it was interested in looking at other opportunities in India. In February 2015, the company acquired assets worth US$6.5 billion from LafargeHolcim, becoming the world's third-largest building materials group by market value. This acquisition almost tripled CRH's net debt, bringing it to €6.6 billion. In August 2015, CRH paid $1.3 billion for CR Laurence, a glazing company based in California. The acquisition complemented CRH's existing North American Building Envelope division, which employed 4,500 people at the time. By November 2015, CRH was getting about a fifth of its operating earnings from US infrastructure.
As of November 2016, half the asphalt, aggregates and assorted material it sold went to the United States. At that time, CRH was the biggest producer of asphalt in the US and the third largest producer of ready-mixed concrete according to the Financial Times.
As of 27 April 2017, CRH was Ireland's biggest company.
Over the earlier part of 2018, CRH spent €500 million on eight acquisitions. Also in 2017, CRH sold Allied Building Products to Beacon Roofing Supply for $2.6 billion. By the end of 2017, the biggest acquisition was Fels-Werke GmbH, a German leading lime and aggregates business with 1 billion tonnes of high-quality limestone reserves, 11 production locations, nine in Germany and one in both the Czech Republic and Russia.
In 2018, CRH purchased Ash Grove Cement Company, and in July 2019, CRH sold its underperforming European distribution arm to The Blackstone Group for €1.64 billion.
2020s
In 2021, CRH invested $1.5 billion in twenty acquisitions, including Angel Brother Enterprises, a Texas-based asphalt paving and infrastructure company, and National Pipe & Plastics Inc., a New York-based manufacturer of water infrastructure and electrical conduit products.
In February 2022, CRH sold its Building Envelope business to KPS Capital Partners for $3.8 billion. In June, the company acquired Barette Outdoor Living, an Ohio-based manufacturer with ten U.S. facilities, from TorQuest Partners and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for $1.9 billion.
Following a shareholder vote in June 2023, CRH transferred its primary stock listing from the London Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange. In August 2023, the company expanded its Texas operations through the acquisition of cement and concrete assets from Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. The purchase included the Hunter Cement Plant, with a 2.1 million ton annual capacity, serving Austin and San Antonio markets, multiple terminals along Texas's eastern gulf coast, and twenty ready-mixed concrete plants.
In December 2023, CRH established a venture capital division, CRH Ventures, with a US$250 million fund. This unit focuses on investments in construction and climate technology companies.
From Wikipedia’s article on CRH plc, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8