Good day, and welcome to the CRH second quarter 2026 results presentation. My name is Krista, and I will be your conference operator today.

All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star and then the number one on your telephone keypad at any time. If you would like to withdraw your question, it's star followed by the number one again.

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jim Mintern, CRH Chief Executive Officer, to begin the conference. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone. Jim Mintern here, CEO of CRH, and you're all very welcome to our Q2 2026 results presentation and conference call.

Joining me on the call is Aylwyn Bryan, our CFO, Randy Lake, our COO, and Danilo Juvane, Head of Investor Relations. Before we get started, I'll hand over to Danilo for some brief opening remarks.

Thanks, Jim, and hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to slide two shown here on the screen.

During our presentation, we will be making some forward-looking statements relating to our future plans and expectations. These are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to factors outlined on this slide.

For more details, please refer to our annual report and other SEC filings, which are available on our website. I'll now hand it back to you, Jim.

Over the next 20 minutes or so, we will take you through a brief presentation of our results for the second quarter of the year, highlighting the key components of our operating performance, our recent capital allocation activities, as well as providing you with an update on our expectations for the year. We will also outline how we are strategically positioning our business to deliver further growth and value creation for our shareholders.

First, on slide four, let me take you through some key messages from our results. We are pleased to report a record second quarter with further growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and margin compared to the prior-year period, reflecting favorable underlying demand, disciplined commercial execution, and contributions from acquisitions.

All of this is underpinned by the benefits of our superior strategy and the continued execution of our winning way. We remain focused on active portfolio management and the disciplined allocation of capital as we continue to build a higher-growth connected portfolio to maximize shareholder value.

In the year to date, we completed three strategic divestitures of non-core businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion, and invested $1.4 billion in 17 value-accretive acquisitions across our four strategic growth platforms of aggregates, cementitious, roads, and water. We also recently announced an agreement to acquire Arcosa, a leading provider of building materials and critical infrastructure products in the United States.

This is a significant investment which will reinforce CRH as the leading aggregates and critical infrastructure player in North America, and I will take you through that in further detail later in the presentation. Turning to outlook, we are encouraged by the underlying demand environment across our key markets.

Notwithstanding the current geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties, we are pleased to reaffirm our adjusted EBITDA guidance range for 2026, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH. Turning now to slide five and our financial highlights for the second quarter.

Overall, a robust performance with revenues, adjusted EBITDA, margin, and diluted EPS all ahead of the prior-year period. Total revenues of $10.8 billion were 6% ahead.

This translated into adjusted EBITDA of over $2.6 billion in the quarter, a 7% increase over the prior year. Despite contending with an inflationary cost environment, I am pleased to report a further 30 basis points of margin expansion, demonstrating our relentless focus on commercial excellence and strong cost discipline across our business.

All of this translated into further growth in our diluted earnings per share, a 14% increase, reflecting a strong operating performance and including a 16-cent net gain on divestitures in the period. Now, at this point, I will ask Randy to take you through the performance of each of our businesses.

Thanks, Jim, and hello, everyone. Turning to slide seven and starting with Americas Materials Solutions, which delivered a strong performance in the quarter, supported by good underlying demand, positive pricing, and contributions from acquisitions.

Total revenues and adjusted EBITDA were 10% and 12% ahead of the prior year, benefiting from our national scale and connected portfolio of businesses. In Essential Materials, second quarter revenues were 20% ahead of the prior year.

Our aggregates volume increased by 2%, while pricing was 5% ahead. Cement volumes were 2% behind the prior year, reflecting some adverse weather conditions which impacted activity levels in certain markets.

Cement pricing declined by 1%, reflecting regional variances across our operating footprint. Our performance also reflects contributions from acquisitions, particularly Eco Material, which I'm pleased to report is performing well.

In Road Solutions, Q2 revenues were 6% ahead of the prior year, supported by growth in asphalt volumes and pricing, as well as increased paving activity, reflecting strong project execution and backlog conversion. From a demand standpoint, the underlying backdrop remains positive, supported by our strategic alignment to growing infrastructure megatrends.

Transportation and water infrastructure continues to be supported by strong state and federal funding, while reindustrialization activity remains underpinned by large-scale manufacturing and data center projects. Despite an inflationary cost environment, I'm pleased with how our teams demonstrated strong cost and commercial discipline across our business, delivering a further 40 basis point of margin expansion compared to the prior year.

Overall, robust delivery from our Americas Materials Solutions business, and looking ahead for the remainder of the year, I'm encouraged by the positive momentum we're seeing in our bidding activity and our backlogs. Next to Americas Building Solutions on slide eight, where our second quarter performance reflects the impact of recently completed divestitures and a subdued new-build residential market.

We also experienced an inflationary cost backdrop, particularly in relation to elevated haulage rates in the quarter, and we've implemented operational and commercial initiatives to mitigate these costs. In our Outdoor Living business, demand for residential repair and remodel continues to be resilient.

In our Building and Infrastructure Solutions business, we're seeing good growth in data center, water, and energy markets. For Americas Building Solutions overall, total revenues and adjusted EBITDA were 2% and 8% behind prior year.

Moving to International Solutions on slide nine, where our business delivered further growth and margin expansion, supported by higher activity levels in certain markets, positive pricing momentum, and strict cost control in an inflationary environment. Total revenue growth of 5% translated into an 8% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 70 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting ongoing performance optimization initiatives, as well as contributions from acquisitions.

In Europe, our businesses continue to benefit from favorable infrastructure and reindustrialization activity, while in Australia, our business also continues to perform well, benefiting from positive underlying demand, operational improvements, and synergy delivery from recent acquisitions.

Thanks, Randy. Overall, a strong second quarter performance from our business.

Now at this point, I would like to discuss the continued execution of our strategy and how that leaves us well positioned for continued growth and value creation. We continue to focus on increasing our exposure to three large and growing infrastructure megatrends, which we believe will support significant long-term growth and value creation for our business.

Through disciplined capital allocation, we are strengthening our leading market positions in attractive markets to fully capitalize on these compelling growth opportunities. We are continuing to advance our aggregates-led connected portfolio strategy, as demonstrated by our recent agreement to acquire Arcosa.

We produce over 380 million tons of aggregates on an annual basis, and by leveraging the benefits of our connected portfolio across our cementitious, roads, and water platforms, we are able to maximize our profits, cash, and returns. With over 1,200 acquisitions completed throughout our history, we have a proven ability to acquire and integrate businesses at scale, and our financial strength and cash generation capabilities provides us with strong optionality for further capital deployment.

Turning to slide 12, through the continued execution of our strategy, we are increasing our exposure to growing infrastructure megatrends: transportation, water, and reindustrialization, and strengthening our leadership positions across our four connected growth platforms of aggregates, cementitious, roads, and water. All of this reinforces our position as the number one infrastructure player in North America and our ability to deliver further growth and value creation for our shareholders.

I will now ask Aylwyn to take you through our recent capital allocation activities.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everybody.

Turning to slide 13, and first to M&A, where year to date we've invested $1.4 billion on 17 value-accretive acquisitions across our connected growth platforms. The largest acquisition was Axias Water for approximately $700 million, further strengthening our position as a leading US water infrastructure player.

As Jim mentioned earlier, in June, we also reached an agreement to acquire Arcosa for a cash consideration of $150 per share, reflecting a total enterprise value of approximately $8.5 billion. The transaction is subject to Arcosa stockholder approval, regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions, and we expect to close during the first quarter of 2027.

Looking ahead, and notwithstanding what has been an active year so far, we have a strong pipeline of further M&A opportunities in front of us, supported by our unmatched scale, connected portfolio, and fragmented nature of our industry. We also completed three strategic divestitures of non-core businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion, demonstrating our commitment to active portfolio management and the reallocation of capital into higher-growth connected businesses.

Through the second quarter, we've invested approximately $800 million in growth capex, leveraging our size and scale to fully capitalize on high-returning, low-risk investment opportunities to expand capacity in high-growth markets, improve operational efficiency, increase automation, and optimize our energy usage, all of which will drive long-term shareholder value. We've also returned $1.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks year to date.

In line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth, the board has declared a quarterly dividend of 39 cents per share, representing an increase of 5% on the prior year. Since the inception of our buyback program in 2018, we've returned approximately $10 billion to shareholders through the repurchase of 24% of our shares.

As previously announced in June, in connection with our agreement to acquire Arcosa, we've taken the decision to pause our share buyback program following the completion of the latest tranche, and we'll reevaluate the program at a later date. Overall, an active year so far, demonstrating our focus on efficient allocation of capital to maximize value for our shareholders.

Thanks, Aylwyn. A good summary there of our recent capital allocation activities.

Turning now to slide 14, and our agreement to acquire Arcosa, which is fully aligned with our strategy. Arcosa is a leading provider of building materials and critical infrastructure products in the United States.

Under our ownership, it'll enhance our connected customer offering, and with 35 million tons of annual high-quality aggregates, it'll reinforce our position as the leader in US aggregates with over 265 million tons of combined annualized production. Overall, the acquisition represents a compelling growth and value-creation opportunity for CRH, and I will ask Randy to provide a brief overview of the strong synergy opportunities we have identified so far.

For this acquisition, we're uniquely positioned to deliver significant value creation for our shareholders, leveraging our unmatched scale, connected portfolio, and leading performance capabilities. As you can see on slide 15, we currently expect approximately $175 million of run-rate cost synergies to be achieved by year three, with $60 million anticipated in the first year of ownership.

We've identified significant opportunities across operational improvements, materials self-supply, global procurement benefits, as well as optimizing our administrative and support functions. Overall, the transaction represents strong synergy and value-creation potential, and we look forward to updating you further post-completion.

Turning to slide 16, and just to take a step back for a moment to highlight our strong track record of synergy delivery from acquisitions. Our ability to identify, acquire, and integrate businesses at scale is a well-developed muscle in CRH.

Origination starts at the local level: local teams with strong community ties and long-term relationships sourcing strategic growth opportunities across thousands of locations. These empowered local teams leverage the benefits of our global scale and leading performance capabilities, be it through best practice programs, global procurement benefits, or operational and commercial excellence initiatives.

We have a disciplined and value-focused approach, applying a rigorous appraisal process as well as strict strategic and financial performance criteria to every investment we make. Since 2018, we've delivered, on average, approximately 600 basis points of margin improvement within the first three years post-acquisition.

A more recent example of this is Eco Material, the leading supplier of SCMs, which we acquired last year. The integration is progressing well, and I'm pleased to report that synergy delivery is ahead of our original expectations.

All of this reflects a deeply embedded culture of performance and a relentless focus on continuous business improvement, which really strikes at the core of our winning way.

Thanks, Randy. Turning to slide 17, and as we previously communicated, over the next five years, we expect to have at our disposal financial capacity of approximately $40 billion, reflecting our strong growth profile, the level of cash we are generating, and the strength of our balance sheet.

We expect to allocate approximately 70% of this to growth investments, with the remaining 30% returned to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. The proposed acquisition of Arcosa accelerates our progress in this regard, while also being fully aligned with the delivery of our 2030 financial targets: annual revenue growth of between 7% and 9%, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22% to 24% by 2030, and an average adjusted free cash flow conversion of over 100%.

On slide 18, you can really get a sense of the size and scale of our business, with the adjusted EBITDA of CRH together with Arcosa on a forecast 2026 basis being larger than the next four US peers combined. Scale matters in our industry.

It creates significant commercial, operational, and strategic benefits that set us apart and enable us to deliver leading performance year after year. Our unrivaled cash generation capabilities combined with our uniquely connected portfolio provides us with superior optionality to invest for further growth and value creation, all supported by our strong balance sheet and investment-grade credit rating.

All of this together demonstrates why CRH is the leading compounder of capital in our industry. Finally, now turning to outlook on slide 20.

We are pleased to reaffirm our adjusted EBITDA, net income, and diluted earnings per share guidance for 2026. Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and no further major dislocations in the geopolitical or macroeconomic environment, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 and $8.5 billion, net income between $3.9 and $4.1 billion, and diluted earnings per share between $5.60 and $6.05, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH.

That concludes our presentation for today. I will now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.

Thank you. As a reminder to those on the phone, press star one if you would like to ask a question.

We will now pause briefly while we register questions in the Q&A queue. Your first question comes from Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley.

Please go ahead.

Thanks, and good morning. Jim, Aylwyn, congrats on the strong quarter here.

Just you kept your outlook unchanged despite still a volatile and uncertain kind of macro backdrop. Just was hoping you could give us a little bit more color on just your 2026 guidance and just the underlying assumptions.

Good morning, Angel. Listen, I'll give a bit of background first, and then I might ask Randy just to jump in maybe on the building blocks, the kind of volume and prices underpinning that reaffirmation of the guidance, and then Aylwyn just in terms of the financial puts and takes at the end of it.

Listen, this morning very pleased to be announcing a really strong Q2 and a strong H1 despite what has been a very challenging macro environment. As kind of very much a weather-interrupted kind of May and June in some of our southern and southeastern parts of the US business, and in that context, very pleased to be reaffirming the adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year.

What gives us confidence in that is really the positive demand across the business. Infrastructure is strong, Angel, across the business particularly, and that's both US and an international comment, where we're forecasting this year to be still have 40% of the IIJA unspent.

We had good momentum coming into '26, that's continued, and looking at good momentum exiting into '27, too. I'd say one thing that we did note, certainly in the first half of '26, we saw notable pickup in the whole area of reindustrialization.

That's kind of obviously in data centers, but also advanced manufacturing facilities, semiconductor facilities, LNG plants, and these are large multi-year construction projects, typically can run to kind of two to three years. Residential pretty much subdued, particularly on the new-build side in the US, but seen good resilience actually on the repair and remodel side.

Now when we switch to the international business, seen similar trends: strong infrastructure underpin across the whole international business, again seen a pickup in the whole kind of reindustrialization space across data centers and advanced manufacturing, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. Maybe slightly different to the US, seen pockets of recovery in residential, certainly in parts of Western Europe and up into the Nordics as well we are seeing.

Good underlying backdrop across the business. We've had a good start to the year in terms of pricing, good early season pricing, and that was followed up by mid-year pricing also and very good commercial execution, and looking forward in that guidance to another year of margin expansion.

Maybe, Randy, do you want to get into the specifics maybe of volumes and prices?

I guess when you look at our business, we've talked about this before, kind of the Americas Materials business specifically, the window to the future is our backlog. Kind of gives us that six- to nine-month view in terms of underlying activities, and that remains positive.

When we talk about kind of the quantum that we're bidding as well as what we've secured in terms of volumes, they're both up year over year. Jim called it out, certainly infrastructure and the private reindustrializations playing a significant role in that.

Jim mentioned it as well, these are multi-year projects. I think what it does do is actually play to the strength of the connected portfolio, it's not just the ability to provide the aggregates everything from the very beginning of the project in terms of the underground water, energy components with our products business as well cementitious and all the way into delivering aggregate, ready-mix, and then ultimately asphalt.

That connected portfolio has been a strength and adds to the volume backdrop that we're seeing. Good to see agg movement in Q2, volumes up 2%, pricing up 5%.

That's really in line with what our full-year expectations have been. If you remember back in Q1, we had a mix-adjusted pricing of 5%, it's great to see that actually coming through in regards to demand in the business.

Cement volumes, some weather impact in Q2, but for the first half up 3%, encouraging to see that. I think that really gives us the confidence in terms of what our outlook is on cement, kind of low single digit in terms of volume improvement and broadly flat on pricing.

I would call out specifically in around our cementitious strategy, I mentioned it in the opening remarks, Eco Material performing really well, volume and pricing up mid-single digits. When you look at kind of the strength of that business, what we anticipated in terms of commercial opportunities, the internalizing of that volume, it's coming through, and when you look at a mix-adjusted basis on cementitious pricing, we're ahead, which was really positive.

Jim mentioned as well just to wrap up on international, good performance, continue to see good volume growth. The expectations for the year are low single-digit volume and mid-single-digit pricing for the full year, and that'll be the ninth year of positive pricing in our international business.

The combination of good backlog, good commercial execution gives us a lot of confidence for the year.

Good morning, Angel. From a scope perspective, you'll have seen it's been an active year from a portfolio perspective, $1.4 billion on 17 value-accretive acquisitions and $1.9 billion of divestments.

Overall scope impact is lots of puts and takes feeding to this, but the net incremental EBITDA contribution to be expected in the region of $200 million for the year. Then finally, just on FX, based on current FX rates, the FX impact is expected to be negligible.

Super helpful. That was a lot of great detail, thank you.

Maybe just one quick one, just you touched on prices and how you're seeing some improvements in certain pockets. I guess your view as we go into the second half and into kind of exit rate into 2027, would be curious if you could talk about just the overall market's ability to absorb potentially higher prices across kind of your Americas Materials products and particularly in essentials, just given continued cost inflation lasting longer than we thought?

I think, Angel, as I said, we've had a good start to the pricing. We've good early season pricing across the whole business.

Randy called it out: in Q1, with mix-adjusted 5%, we've good to see that coming through strongly then as 5% reported in Q2. Mid-year pricing, we called it out, I think, on the Q1 earnings, is in place, right, and that's what is giving us that confidence in looking at mid-single digits for the full year, which is going to give us good momentum into '27 as well from a pricing perspective.

Obviously, fair bit to play, we're only getting into the kind of crux of the season right now in terms of construction season, but yeah, very happy with where pricing is and really looking forward to another year of margin expansion for the full year.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi. Please go ahead.

Good morning.

Hey,

Jim, could you talk about the drivers of margin weakness at Americas Building Solutions and maybe kind of timing and levers for recovery there?

Sure, Anthony. I think overall it was kind of a mixed quarter overall for the American Building Solutions business, right?

On the one hand, we kind of saw good growth across data centers and the whole reindustrialization space, which kind of fed in strongly to our water and energy infrastructure business. Clearly the performance in the quarter had been impacted by the divestitures in the the first half of the year and the kind of continued subdued residential demand, primarily from a new-build perspective, right?

The repair and maintenance is actually a remodel rather has has remained reasonably resilient, you know. We saw very significant pickup, as during the pandemic, and since then, it's actually held up reasonably well.

It's really the softness and the subdued nature on the new-build residential from that perspective. Specifically in the quarter in the quarter, I think we called it out, we were impacted by cost inflation in the American Building Solutions business, and that is particularly in the area of haulage where we saw increased haulage rates on certain of the delivered products in that in the American Building Solutions.

However, we've taken steps to mitigate this. We've come back with kind of additional price surcharges and cost reductions, but as this can take time to recover, right?

There can be a lag, but we expect the impact of this cost inflation to moderate as we head into kind of quarter three and further into quarter four as well.

That's helpful. I'll turn it over.

Thanks, Anthony.

Your next question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Hey,

good morning, everyone. Want to ask about on the public side, about Build America 250.

Love to get your updated thoughts on how it stacks up to IIJA, the puts and takes there, and it looks like we're heading for a continuing resolution here. Curious to see how you think that plays out and what all that could mean for your business and the public demand outlook.

If we were heading for a bit of a funding gap, how you navigate that. Thank you.

Thanks, Trey. Good morning.

Listen, I might ask Randy to come in just on the very specifics of where we believe it is right now from a DC perspective, but overall, as I said, we exited last year with good momentum and we've seen that continuing in terms of very strong federal and indeed state funding in the current year, right, and we see it in our bidding activity and our backlogs. As I said kind of in the opening remarks on the full-year guidance, we're expecting at the end of the year to have still 40% of the IIJA yet to be deployed.

That's not unusual, right, as we've said this a number of times in a kind of a multi-year Interstate Highway Program funding program, to exit with kind of a one- to 18-month kind of tail in terms of funding is quite common. Maybe, Randy, you might just give an update of what we understand where we are exactly in terms of BA 250 in DC?

I guess if you take a step back, I think broadly, infrastructure spend has been a bipartisan issue, I think it's been constructive conversations both coming out of the House and early conversations within the Senate. As the Build America Act, at least the way it is written today, is authorizing $580 billion for highway, transit, and safety programs.

I think it's obviously early days in terms of the Senate, they're preparing their own version, but certainly our conversations with those people engaged in those discussions, it is a very supportive environment. I think there's obviously a general and broad understanding of the need for continued investment, not only just to maintain what we have, but also to improve and expand.

I think if you took a step back, at least for us, there's kind of three things that stand out in terms of the positive language within the Build America Act: one, there's increased funding for core infrastructure, bridges, highways, streets, and things along those lines, which is critically important. Secondly, there's certainly the conversation in around permitting reform, the ability and obviously the recognition of the need to accelerate project delivery, good to see some of the legislation addressing that area.

Then finally, the new revenue stream. As the federal gas tax is the primary mechanism for fundraising within the Highway Trust Fund.

That's been in place or certainly hasn't been changed since the early '90s, and so there's a recognition of the need to kind of bridge that gap. This won't go the whole way, but it's an important first step.

I think you call it out, maybe we are heading towards a continuing resolution, but we've been there before. Even if we don't reach a multi-year bill in the fall, our starting point for that extension is coming off record levels.

You combine that with the remaining funds of the IIJA, it's a significant level of investment that is just yet to come. I think for us, we certainly don't see any pull back or hesitation at the state level in regards to whether that's maintenance or new builds, so that's encouraging.

I think also what we've seen in times of continuing resolutions has been an increase on states to reallocate money into increased repair and maintenance, certainly a benefit to us as the largest road paver in the US. Fundamentally we don't see any disruptions or expect any disruptions for the balance of the year or as we look into 2027.

Great. Thanks for all the color.

That was super helpful. I'll pass it on.

Best of luck.

Your next question comes from the line of Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my question today. Wanted to see kind of a balanced update on the M&A pipeline and the Arcosa transaction approval, and then a part and parcel with that, you've been good about divesting assets.

Where are you with that journey, and maybe give a little bit more color in the type of assets that you would be more focused in divesting? Thank you.

Hi, Kathryn. Good morning.

Listen, in terms of acquisitions today to pipeline, a very strong first half to the year, right? Very happy, very pleased with it: $1.4 billion on 17 acquisitions, and they've been really across all our kind of connected growth platforms and really aligned with the kind of growing infrastructure megatrends.

The largest, of course, was the Axias Water deal, which closed just before the end of the quarter at $700 million. Super excited in that particular deal, and so far so good, early days, but his integration has started well.

You're right, during it was just announced about a month ago that we had reached agreement to acquire Arcosa for $8.5 billion total EV value. What that Arcosa does is that it brings us in it's as it's primarily a aggregates, but also in plays in the engineered structures, particularly the energy transmission space.

From an aggregate perspective, it adds about 35 million tons to our total 230 million tons that we produce in North America, brings us up, reaffirms our position as number one, but particularly exciting for us our perspective, in that it brings us into two new high-growth markets in terms of Dallas and Phoenix, which were kind of geographic white spaces for us from an aggregate perspective, and in particular they're they're regions and fast-growing areas where we had existing parts of the connected portfolio. To be able to drop in the aggregate position in those particular fast-growing areas is particularly good from that perspective.

Also in terms of the whole engineered structure space, very, that's going to be one of the fastest-growing parts of US construction for the next 5 years, very pleased from that perspective. Now, the deal itself is going to be subject to both Arcosa shareholder approval and normal regulatory approvals.

However, we expect it to kind of complete in early 2027. Now, when you look into the outlook, we've a strong and active pipeline of opportunities in in attractive high-growth markets, where the balance sheet remains robust, right?

We go back to the investor day, we called out that we had $40 billion of financial capacity, right? I think what you get in terms of our portfolio, the connected nature of the portfolio, that brings optionality, Kathryn, in terms of allocating capital across whether it's our aggregates, whether it's across our cementitious or roads or water, and you can see that in the recent deals we've been doing over the last number of years.

With that optionality, I think crucially for myself and the team is that it brings discipline, right? Having that optionality means that we can really have that laser focus on assessing all of the potential M&A pipeline and, picking the ones that are going to add the most significant in terms of shareholder value accretion.

I think ultimately kind of few companies have the scale, the financial power, or the capabilities to execute at the kind of rate we're doing, and really why we see ourselves as the leading compounder of capital in what remains still a quite fragmented industry in our particular growth platforms in the US. Now, in terms of divestments, yeah, a good start to the year, I would say: $1.9 billion across three divestments.

Again, it's something that we regularly challenge ourselves, looking at opportunities to recycle capital into faster-growing, more connected parts of the portfolio. You should expect us to continue to do that, Kathryn.

That's what we do. It's not a an event, it's really just a process that we've continuously challenge ourselves to look for those opportunities.

As we go forward, there will be other opportunities, too, and you should expect it in kind of the faster-growing geographies, the kind of south and the west of the US, Central Eastern Europe, into Australia, but across the four areas of the global the growth platforms that we've called out.

Your next question comes from the line of Keith Hughes with Truist. Please go ahead.

Keith, your line is open. Your next question comes from the line of Will Jones with Rothschild & Co Redburn.

Please go ahead. Good

morning. A couple from me, please, if I could.

First, just looking at the asphalt business in North America, I think the pricing went from flat to plus six in Q2, and we can all see what's happened with bitumen, but perhaps you could just give us an indication of where spot prices might be in year-on-year-wise over the key Q3 season and how your costs are shaping up against that. Any general remark about the absorption of that into the paving business would be great.

Then the second, if you could just perhaps give us a quick tour of any important observations you might make by country in your international business around volume or price. Thank you.

Good morning, Will. Good to hear from you.

I might ask Randy just to come back in terms of the asphalt pricing and the outlook for the full year in terms of pricing and margin in the asphalt business. Good start to the year there, but in terms of the international business, I think a strong performance across it, Will, very briefly.

Starting first maybe in Central Eastern Europe, it was a kind of very much challenged Q1 from a weather perspective. Once we put that weather behind us, we began to see a good recovery across all that Eastern Europe footprint, primarily led by infrastructure and also I called it out in the opening remarks in terms of the whole reindustrialization space in terms of data centers and advanced manufacturing.

In addition to kind of the normal, I guess, regular multi-year EU kind of funding on an infrastructure basis, we're beginning to see reasonable activity in terms of defense infrastructure as well in that particular region and some nice projects across that kind of Eastern Europe flank for us. Western Europe, parts of it, I would say, a strong performance in the quarter and the half.

I'd call out Ireland, Spain, recovery in the Nordics. Seen some early shoots on the French side of it, particularly on the residential in terms of permits from that perspective, pleased to see that.

UK for us has actually had a solid and a good year, building off kind of four or five strong years. Again, more than half the Tarmac business in the UK is infrastructure, and it's still, obviously High Speed 2, we're still delivering some volume into that, but there's some good start-up in other significant infrastructure projects, which is supporting that UK business for us.

We're looking forward to another year of growth in terms of profits and margins again in the UK. Randy, maybe in terms of asphalt in the US, what we're seeing?

Maybe I'll break it into two pieces: the demand environment and then kind of the cost and pricing opportunities there. Maybe go back to our visibility in the demand in terms of our backlog.

We're seeing good improvement in, again in the bidding activity and also the work that we've secured, the volumes are ahead, which is then obviously a positive as we go in to execute in the second half of the year. That's a supportive environment.

I think in terms of liquid asphalt, we've called it out before, certainly a competitive advantage, the opportunity for us to house in our tank storage half of our yearly consumption. It's about having that product available during the paving season, which is critically important.

Happy with the progress we've made this year in terms of what we have in the tank and what from a cost profile standpoint. Again, we use that in a couple different ways: one, for supply; two, the technical capabilities to design mixes specific to any kind of road project we have across the US.

Again, gives us a competitive advantage, and we manage that business on a margin basis. When we look for the full year, our expectation, when you look at the demand environment, the cost profile, and what we've done with liquid asphalt so far, we expect another year of margin progression as we look for the balance of the year.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Keith Hughes with Truist. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Can you hear me now?

Good morning.

Sorry about before. I'm not sure what happened.

Anyway, to my question, a good explanation of asphalt, a lot of positives there. I guess my question's on ready-mix in Americas.

Volumes were flat, pricing up slightly. What do you think's going on in that business and what the outlook for the second half of the year is going to be?

Absolutely, Keith. I think a solid performance, I'd say, year to date in the US.

I think what you're seeing, it's probably one of the areas in the business which is probably most directly impacted by the new-build res situation across the US. That kind of prolonged, subdued kind of softness in new-build res, I think obviously a big user of ready-mix from that perspective.

I think as we're not certainly expecting any recovery on new-build res into '26, and at this stage, you got to say it's probably going to be in the back end of '27 at best before we see any recovery from that perspective. I think when you do see that, it'll be very meaningful both from a volume and particularly a price perspective on the ready-mix side of the business.

I think that's the main driver, and that's pretty consistent across the whole footprint we have across the whole of the US.

Thank you. One other question related to that, just on cement.

You've had good volumes in the first half, sounds like you're going to have some decent volumes in the second half, but pricing still seems to be a little stagnant. What do you think it would take to get cement pricing moving up stronger than what we're seeing today across the industry?

Keith, I think again in terms of cement, very happy with the volume performance, right, and up 3% I think in a market which is probably more flat from that perspective. What's seen there, it's just really increasing some of our own self-supply from maybe some of the more recent acquisitions of the last number of years, executing on the kind of synergy targets and pulling that volume through.

It's really good volume performance. We're stepping off two good years of pricing: up 8% I think in '24, positive in '25, slightly down this year, but overall with the kind of two-year period, good price progression.

Interestingly, I suppose, in the H1, it's kind of slightly down at minus 1%, but yet good margin expansion in that business, right, in the cement business in H1, right? Really good performance coming through in terms of volume and efficiency.

I think going back to the first question, I think what'll certainly help it is going to be a recovery on the res side as well. Obviously, concrete starts to move up and that'll certainly support cement pricing, too.

Again, from our perspective, what we're really pleased with, if you look at kind of a mix-adjusted, including the Eco business, we had good positive pricing in the quarter and in the half. Really good, strong performance across our US cementitious business in total for the first half and the second quarter of the year.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Shane Carberry with Goodbody. Please go ahead.

Morning, guys, and well done again on a strong second quarter. My question is just really on the kind of data center theme.

Jim, you've given us some good statistics on this before with regards to kind of CRH's proximities to data centers under construction. Could we get a bit of an update on that, please, and just to help us in terms of kind of exposure to that segment?

Then maybe just more broadly on the data center theme, obviously hyperscalers have been pretty positive in terms of their capex plans. How do we think about CRH plugging into that from a future growth point of view?

Shane, good morning. I kind of called it out in the opening remarks, we have seen a notable step-up in activity in this space in '26, kind of stepping off '25, and certainly think we're in the early phase of a generational capital investment across the whole of the US, right?

Now, that's not just data centers, right? That's advanced manufacturing into microchip plants, into LNG plants, and we're seeing that.

Maybe not too surprising, obviously '25 was, with the new administration, very much promoting the kind of onshoring, reshoring. It takes time for permitting and planning to come through, and we're seeing that.

Randy touched on it in terms of the increased share of that kind of private reindustrialization in our overall backlogs. Now, we're active right now on 200 data centers across the US.

Now, these are multi-year projects. For us, they kind of run from typically two to three years.

With 2,000 locations across the whole of the US, I think you called it out, we're within 25 miles of 85% of all the data centers that have been announced in the US are within 25 miles of one of our CRH facilities. Now, this is something we recognized, I would say, a couple of years ago, and we put dedicated sales teams in place, right, who had specific knowledge in this space and are not just dealing with the kind of GC, but we're actually dealing directly with the actual data stage users, the hyperscalers, working with them, right, in terms of designing, in terms of helping them specify the products and materials, because each of them have different requests and in terms of the kind of materials they're looking to use in these particular facilities.

Working with them at an early stage, and if you're building a data center as a user and GC, what matters is clearly speed and quality. That's what you're going to get with CRH given the 2,000 locations, given the connected nature of the portfolio.

Now, kind of on that, we're not just delivering a single product, right? If you think about it, we are often the very first person on the site.

It's a good example actually, we just secured a big one in East Texas, right? To put it in context, right, this particular facility, the data site, the footprint of it alone, not the total site, is 85 acres.

We're going to deliver 3 million tons of aggregates into one particular job, just to give you a sense of the scale. In terms of that project, we'll be first in in terms of a lot of the subterranean energy and water infrastructure, critical for an investment at that scale.

You have to stabilize the site. You're coming in with our cementitious product offering to stabilize the site, and it's only then that we're coming with our aggregates, and after that with our concrete, and then we come with our asphalt and paving in terms of paving all the access roads and indeed the car parks at the end.

These are huge projects that can extend for two, three years, and we're beginning to see that come true in terms of activity levels and backlogs in 2026. I think from our perspective, it's the beauty of the connected portfolio, and really, it's difficult for anyone to match what we can do in terms of that complete product offering and kind of increase in share of wallet with the hyperscalers and the data center users.

Put it all together, it's kind of a really meaningful driver of the long-term growth of the business as we look forward.

Really helpful. Thanks, Jim.

Thanks, Shane. Thank you.

We have time for one more question, and that question is going to come from the line of Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hi, Jim.

Looking at the results, my question has to do with margins, especially in the American Material Solutions. There was a very good expansion, and I wanted to understand the reasons for that and the confidence that you have of sustaining that type of margins in the coming quarters and the year.

Hi, Adrian. It was a bit difficult to hear you, but I think it was around the margin performance and around the AMS in Q2 and H1,

right? Listen Really

pleased, right, in terms of performance of the AMS business. I think if you were to call a standout in the quarter and the half, it is really the American Materials business.

A really strong performance and a really strong relative performance, I think, if you look across the the sector, with another, quarter of margin expansion, despite what I said was very significant weather disruption in kind of second half of May into June in some of our bigger states and that inflationary backdrop. I think again, that actually reminds me of some of the conversations we had back in '23, right?

It strikes the heart of the strategy, and, that connected portfolio, which brings the consistency, the predictability, and the reliability to that kind of core American material business. When you look at it having, I guess, 2,000 locations, right, and not just locations, but leading market positions, over 200 leading brands at a regional level across the US, the connected nature of the portfolio, right, and then the relentless focus on performance, whether that's operational excellence, commercial excellence, back into procurement excellence month after month, which feeds into the quarter and the half-year performance.

It's all of that coming to way or coming together rather, and that's what the CRH winning way is, right? We set it out in the investor day, it's really kind of an affirmation of that and what sets the business apart, and ultimately what's driving our growth and the consistency of performance in what was a challenging first six months of the year.

We exit '25, it was, I think it was our 12th consecutive year of margin expansion, and we expect this year to be our 13th consecutive year of margin expansion. I think there's very few companies in any industry can deliver that kind of performance and consistency and predictability over time, right?

I think in the context of that, I called it out, it is the kind of CRH winning way. It's it's that coming together across the connected portfolio, but a key part of that is kind of the go-to-market strategy, and Randy, would you maybe give us a give a bit of flavor as to how we we think about that and how we, I guess, present ourselves at a customer-facing level?

Maybe two two ways in particular. When you think about certainly we're going to be best-in-class in each of our operating businesses and engage with our customers in a very targeted way, but what we've done over the last several years is build out what we call market teams, in 30-plus markets across the US, the critical MSAs in which we participate in: Salt Lake City, Dallas, Tampa, Austin, markets like that, where we're bringing the full capabilities of CRH to engage with the customers that Jim called out, those who have national presence or regional presence where they value from an early onset in terms of project design to execution kind of the consistency and high level performance we bring.

We've done something unique in terms of each one of those markets bringing our teams and capabilities together. I think also when you look at kind of verticals that are important in terms of supported by megatrends, in around data centers, airports, nuclear energy, or the whole energy transition, building teams with specific levels of expertise in each one of those areas.

They get in early, talk with the hyperscalers of the world from design and specification standpoint to allow us to bring the full armament of CRH to those projects early and then all the way through execution. We've uniquely changed kind of how we go to market in these critical areas, and I think it's making a meaningful difference in our performance, but also the outlook for the business.

Thanks, Randy.

Thank you.

Listen, thanks, everyone, that's all we have time for today, and thank you for your attention. As always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our investor relations team.

We look forward to updating you again in October when we will report our results for the third quarter of 2026. Thank you, have a good day, and stay safe.

Thank you. Your conference call has now ended, and you may now disconnect.