CRH, Ireland’s biggest company, has reported record earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of €1.54bn in the six months to 30 June.

This represents a jump of 36pc year-on-year.

The company’s sales of €13.2bn were 11pc year higher than the corresponding period last year, according to interim results from the group.

The performance was driven by both organic growth and acquisitions.

Meanwhile, earnings per share from continued operations were 51pc ahead of last year.

Albert Manifold, chief executive of CRH, said: “On the back of our strategic initiatives, CRH has delivered significant profit growth in the first half of 2019, with a good performance in our heritage business and strong contributions from recent acquisitions.”

The company said it was continuing its share buyback programme, with a further tranche of €350m to be completed by year end.

This brings the total share repurchases in 2019 to €900m.

“With our continued strong cash generation and financial discipline, we expect year-end debt metrics to be below normalised levels,” Mr Manifold said.

“We anticipate further progress in the second half of the year with benefits from positive underlying momentum in all divisions as well as good contributions from acquisitions.”

In it Americas materials arm, on the back of a “healthy” economic environment, like-for-like sales were 2pc ahead of the first six months of 2018, however, adverse weather conditions in certain regions hampered activity, CRH said.

Meanwhile, in its European materials division, the company said good underlying activity prevailed in key markets in Western and Eastern Europe and like-for-like sales growth of 6pc reflected a more normalised weather pattern compared with the first half of 2018, along with price progress across all product lines.

However, in the UK, construction activity continued to decline amidst Brexit-related uncertainty.

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