DUBLIN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Irish building materials group CRH spent 400 million euros on nearly two dozen acquisitions and investments in the second half of last year, it said on Wednesday, bringing its total deal spend last year to 600 million euros.
A major player in the U.S. market, where it is the leading producer of asphalt for highway construction, CRH has over 1 billion euros to spend on acquisitions over the next 18 months.
Last year’s deals range from cement plants in Ukraine to asphalt plants in New Jersey.
"The bolt-on transactions announced today are very much in keeping with the group’s strategy to acquire businesses which add value to our existing operations or which expand our footprint in developed markets where we see opportunities for further growth," Myles Lee, CRH’s chief executive, said in a statement.
"Meanwhile we continued to grow our activities in developing economies by investing through our 26 percent associate in northeastern China and through a strategic bolt-on acquisition in Ukraine."
CRH will report full-year results on Feb. 28.
