CRH chairman builds stake

But with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic rearing its head in mid-March, the group is now moving to conserve cash, cutting costs and capital expenditure and taking “significant” restructuring actions. It has temporarily laid off and furloughed workers in areas where demand has been weakest.

Western European operations have seen the most disruption to date amid nationwide lockdowns. Of more significance, however, is the picture in the US, given that it accounted for more than 50 per cent of revenue from continuing operations last year. While certain states, such as New York, have been more heavily affected, the group has benefited from construction being deemed an ‘essential activity’. North American operations are running at around 80-85 per cent of normal levels. It says it has a healthy backlog of orders and is still seeing a favourable bidding environment right now.

While most other companies are taking a scythe to shareholder payouts, CRH is sticking with its €0.63 (55p) final dividend for 2019. The share buyback programme has been postponed, although €200m of repurchases were conducted in March. Having drawn down a €3.5bn revolving credit facility, it now has over $6bn (£4.8bn) of cash. The group says this is enough to meet its debt obligations for the next four-and-a-half years.