CRH Stock

Good day, and welcome to the CRH Second Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. My name is Krista, and I will be your conference operator today. [Operator Instructions] 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 2 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 4, 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 3 strategic divestitures of noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion and invested $1.4 billion in 17 value-accretive acquisitions across our 4 strategic growth platforms in aggregates, cementities, roads and mortar.

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 5 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 $0.16 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 7 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 mega trends. 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 points of margin expansion compared to the prior year.

So 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 America's Building Solutions on Slide 8, where our second quarter performance reflects the impact of recently completed divestitures and a 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 9, where our business delivered further growth and margin expansion supported by higher activity levels in certain markets, positive pricing momentum and fixed cost control in an inflationary environment. Total revenue growth of $0.05 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 valuation. We continue to focus on increasing our exposure to 3 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 4 connected growth platforms of aggregate cementitious roads and water. All of this reinforces our position as the #1 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. For year-to-date, we've invested $1.4 billion on 17 value-accretive acquisitions across our connected growth platforms. The largest acquisition was Axius Water for approximately $700 million, further strengthening our position as a leading U.S. 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 3 strategic divestitures of noncore 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 and 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 have also returned $1.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks year-to-date. And in line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth, the Board has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.39 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 have 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. So 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 will enhance our connected customer offering and with 35 million tonnes of annual high-quality aggregates, it will reinforce our position as the leader in U.S. aggregates with over 265 million tonnes 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. And as you can see on Slide 15, we currently expect approximately $175 million of run rate cost synergies to be achieved by year 3 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. So 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 3 years post acquisition. A more recent example of this is Ecomaterial, 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 5 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% and 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 4 U.S. 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. And 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 billion and $8.5 billion. Net income between $3.9 billion 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.

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

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley.

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

Angel, yes, 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.

Yes, listen, this morning, very pleased to have announcing a really strong Q2 and a strong H1 despite it has been a very challenging macro environment. As you know, kind of very much a weather interrupted kind of May and June and some of our southern and southeastern parts of the U.S. business. And in that context, very pleased to reaffirming the adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year. What gives us confidence of that is really the positive demand across the business. Infrastructure is strong, Angel, across the business, particularly, and that's both U.S. and an international comment.

We're forecasting this year to be still have 40% of the double IJA unspent. So 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 a notable pickup in the whole area of reindustrialization. That's kind of also in data centers, but also advanced manufacturing facilities, semiconductor facilities, LNG plants. So these are large multiyear construction projects typically can run kind of 2 to 3 years.

Residential, pretty much subdued, particularly on the new build side in the U.S. but seen good resilience actually on the repair and remodel side. Now we switch to the international business and seen similar trends, strong infrastructure 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 and maybe slightly different to the U.S. in pockets of recovery and residential certainly in parts of Western Europe and up into the Nordics as well we are seeing. So good underlying backdrop across the business.

We've had a good start to the year in terms of pricing or good early season pricing, and that was followed up by midyear pricing also and very good commercial execution. Annd looking forward to that guidance to another year of margin expansion. But maybe, Randy, do you want to get into the specifics, maybe volumes and prices?

Yes. I guess when you look at our business, and we've talked about this before, kind of the Americas Materials business specifically, the window of the future is our backlog kind of gives us that 6- to 9-month view in terms of underlying activities and that remains positive. So when we talk about kind of the quantum that we're bidding as well as what we secured in terms of volumes, they're both up year-over-year. Jim called it out, certainly infrastructure and the private reindustrialization playing a significant role in that. Jim mentioned it as well, these are multiyear projects. I think what it does do is actually play to the strength of the connected portfolio. So it's -- 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 as cementitious and all the way into delivering aggregate ready-mix and then ultimately, asphalt.

So that connected portfolio has been a strength in adds to the volume backdrop that we're seeing. Good to see ag movement in the 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 mixed adjusted pricing of 5%. So it's great to see it actually coming through in regards to demand in the business.

Cement volumes, some weather impact in Q2, but for the first half, up 3%. So encouraging to see that. And 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 and around our cementitious strategy. I mentioned it in the opening remarks, ECO material performing really well. Volume and pricing up mid-single digits. So when you look at kind of the strength of that business, what we anticipated in terms of commercial opportunities, the internalizing of that volume is 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, a low single-digit volume and mid-single-digit pricing for the full year, and that will be the ninth year of positive pricing in our international business. So -- the combination of good backlog, good commercial execution gives us a lot of confidence for the year.

One from a scope perspective, you'll have seen it's been an active year from a portfolio perspective. So $1.4 billion on 17 value-accretive acquisitions and $1.9 billion of divestments and so overall scope impact, I guess, lots of puts and takes feeding in to this, but the net incremental EBITDA contribution to be expected in the region of $200 million for the year. And 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. Maybe just one quick one. Just you touched on prices and how you're seeing some improvements in certain pockets. I guess just your view as we go into the second half and then to kind of exit rate into 2027. I 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, particularly in Essentials, just given continued cost inflation lasting longer than we thought.

Yes. I think, Angel, as you said, we've had a good start to the pricing. We've good early season pricing across the whole business, and we called it out in Q1 with mix adjusted in 5%. We're good to see that coming through strongly, then the 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 has given 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, a fair bit to play. We're only getting into the kind of crux of the season right now in terms of construction season. But very happy with where pricing is and really looking forward to another year of margin expansion for the full year.

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

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

Yes. Sure, Anthony. Yes, 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. But clearly, the performance in the quarter had been impacted by the divestitures in the first half of the year and kind of continued subdued residential demand, primarily from a newbuild perspective, right?

The repair and maintenance is actually a remodel at has remained reasonably resilient to now. We saw a very significant pickup as know, during the pandemic. And since then, it's actually held up reasonably well. So it's really the softness in the subdued nature on the new build residential from that perspective. Specifically 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 the American Building Solutions.

However, we've taken steps to mitigate us. We've come back what kind of additional price surcharges and cost reductions. But as you know, this will 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 3 and further into quarter 4 as well.

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

Yes.So I want to ask about on the public side, about Build America 250, I'd love to get your updated thoughts on how it stacks up to IGA, 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. And if we were heading for a bit of a funding gap, how do you navigate that?

Thanks, Trey. Yes, I might ask Randy to comment 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 continue 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 and 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 double IGA yet to be deployed. That's not unusual, right? I said there's a number of times in kind of multiyear interstate highway program funding program to exit with kind of 1 to 18 months kind of tail in terms of funding is quite common. But maybe, Randy, you might just give an update of what we understand where we are exactly in terms of BA250 for MDC?

Yes. So I guess if you take a step back, I think, broadly, infrastructure spend has been a bipartisan issue. So I think it's been constructive conversations, both coming out of the house and early conversations within the Senate. As you know, the Build America Act, at least the way it is written today is authorizing $580 billion for highway transit and safety programs. I think, obviously, early days in terms of the Senate. So 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 3 things that stand out in terms of the positive language within the Build American Act. One, there's increased funding for core infrastructure. So bridges, highways, streets and things along those lines, which is critically important.

Secondly, there's certainly the conversation in and around permitting reform. So the ability and obviously, the recognition, the need to accelerate project delivery. So good to see some of the legislation addressing that area. And then finally, the new revenue stream. As you know, 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 called it out, maybe we are heading towards a continuing resolution, but we've been there before. So even if we don't reach a multiyear bill in the fall, our starting point for that extension is coming off record levels. And so you combine that with the remaining funds of the IIJA it's a significant level of investment that is yet to come. I think for us, we certainly don't see any pullback or hesitation at the state level in regards to whether it'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 paper in the U.S. But fundamentally, we don't see any disruptions or expect any disruptions for the balance of the year or as we look into 2027.

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

I wanted to see a couple of balance and update on the M&A pipeline and the Arcosa transaction approval, and then [indiscernible] 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.

Kathryn, yes, listen, in terms of acquisitions to date on pipeline, very strong first half to the year, right? 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 Axius 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 as 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, as you know, it's primarily aggregates, but also plays in the engineered structures, particularly the energy transmission space. From an aggregates perspective, it adds about 35 million tonnes to our total 230 million tonnes that we produced in North America. So brings us up reaffirms our position is #1. But particularly exciting for our perspective, and that brings us into 2 new high-growth markets in terms of the Dallas and Phoenix, which are kind of geographic white spaces for us from an aggregate perspective. And in particular, there are regions and fast-growing areas where we had existing parts of the connected portfolio to be able to drop in the aggregates 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 going parts of U.S. construction for the next 5 years. So 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 expected to kind of complete in early 2027.

Now I'm going to go to the outlook. We have a strong and active pipeline of opportunities in attractive high-growth markets, where the balance sheet remains robust, right? And we go back to the Investor Day, we called out that we had $40 billion of financial capacity, right? And I think what you get in terms of our portfolio, the connected nature of the portfolio, that brings optionality [indiscernible] 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.

But without optionality, I think crucial 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 the potential M&A pipeline and picking the ones that are going to add the most significance 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.

And what remains still a quite fragmented industry in our particular growth platforms in the U.S. Now in terms of divestments, yes, a good start to the year, I would say, $1.9 billion across 3 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. I mean that's what we do. It's not an event. It's really just a process that we continuously challenge ourselves to look for those opportunities. And as we go forward, there will be other opportunities, too, and you should expect it. And kind of the faster-growing geographies, the kind of South and the West of the U.S., Central and Eastern Europe and to Australia, but across the 4 areas of the growth platforms that we've called out.

Your next question comes from the line of Keith Hughes with Truist. Keith, your line is open.

Your next question comes from the line of Will Jones with Rothschild & Co Redburn.

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 6% in Q2, and we can all see what's happening with bitumen. But perhaps you could just give us an indication of where spot prices might be year-on-year wise over the key Q3 season and how your costs are shaping up against that and any general remark about the absorption of that into the paving business would be great.

And then the second, if you could just perhaps give us a quick tour of any important numbers then you might make by country in your international business around volume or price?

Yes. I'll -- well, 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 on the asphalt business, a good start to the year there. But of international business, I think a good -- again, a strong performance across the -- very briefly. Starting first, maybe in Central Eastern Europe, was 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 multiyear EU kind of funding on an infrastructure basis 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 flying for us. Western Europe, parts of it, I would say, a strong performance in the quarter and the half. I called out Ireland, Spain, recovering in the Nordics.

We've seen some early shoots on the French side of it, particularly on the residential in terms of permits. From that perspective, so pleased to see that. U.K. for us has actually had a solid and a good year, building off kind of 4, 5 strong years. Again, more than half the Tarmac business in the U.K. is infrastructure. And there's still obviously, high-speed tube, we're still delivering some volume into that, but there's some good start-up in other significant infrastructure projects, which is supporting that U.K. business for us. So we're looking forward to another year of growth in terms of profits and margins again in the U.K. Randy, maybe in terms of asphalt in the U.S., what we're seeing?

Yes. So maybe I'll break it into 2 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. So we're seeing good improvement again in the bidding activity and also the work that we've secured. So 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 on -- in terms of liquid asphalt, we've called it out before, certainly a competitive advantage, the opportunity for us to house and our tank storage half of our yearly consumption. It's about having that product available during the paving season, which is critically important. So happy with the progress we 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 of different ways.

One, for supply to the technical capabilities to design mixes specific to any kind of road project we have across the U.S. again, gives us a competitive advantage. And we manage that business on a margin basis. So 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.

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

Anyway, to my question. As you get the explanation of asphalt, a lot of positives there. I guess my question is on ready-mix in Americas. Volumes were flat, pricing up slightly. Could you give -- what do you think is going on in that business and the outlook for the second half of the year is going to be?

Yes, absolutely, Keith. I think a solid performance, I'd say, year-to-date in the U.S. I think what you're seeing is probably 1 of the areas in the business, which is probably most directly impacted by the new build red situation across the U.S. That kind of prolonged, subdued kind of softness in new build res. I think, obviously, a big user of ready mix from that perspective. So I think as we're not certainly expecting any recovery on new build res into '26 and at this stage, you've 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. But I think when you do see that, it will be very meaningful, both from a volume and particularly a price perspective on the ready-mix side of the business. So I think that's the main driver, and that's pretty consistent across the whole footprint we have across the whole of the U.S.

Okay. One other question related to that on cement. You've had good volumes in the first half. It 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? .

Yes, 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. And that what's seeing there is just really increasing some of our own self-supply from maybe some of the more recent acquisitions over the last number of years exercising the kind of executing rather on the kind of synergy targets and pulling that volume through. So a really good volume performance.

We're stepping off 2 good years of pricing, up 8%, I think, in '24, positive in '25, slightly down this year, but overall, over the kind of 2-year period, good price progression. Interest [indiscernible] the H1, it's kind of slightly down minus 1%, but yet good margin expansion in that business, right, in the Cement business in H1, right? So a good really good performance coming through in terms of volume and efficiency.

I think going back to the first question, I think what will certainly help it is going to be a recovery on the res side as well. Obviously, concrete starts to move up, and that will 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. So really good strong performance on our costs for U.S. sematic business in total for the first half and the second quarter of the year.

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

And well done again on a strong second quarter. My question is just really on the kind of data center team. Jim, you've given us some good statistics on this before with regards to kind of CRH proximities to data centers under construction. Could we get a bit of an update on that, please? And just to help us kind of exposure to that segment. And then maybe just more broadly on the data center team, obviously, the hyperscalers have been pretty positive in terms of their CapEx plan. How do we think about CRH plugging into that from a future growth point of view?

Yes, I kind of called out in the opening remarks. We have seen a notable step-up in activity in the space in '26 kind of stepping off '25. And certainly think we're in the early phase of a generation of capital investment across the whole of the U.S., right? Now that's not just sales centers, right? That's advanced manufacturing into Microchip plants into LNG plants. And we're seeing that. And maybe not too surprising. Obviously, '25 with the new administration, I'm very much promoting the kind of onshore and reshoring. It takes time for permitting and planning to come through, and we're seeing that. Randy touched on this in terms of the increased share of that kind of private reindustrialization in our overall backlog.

Now we're active on right now on 200 data centers across the U.S. Now these are multiyear projects. For us that kind of run from typically 2 to 3 years. And with 2,000 locations across the whole of the U.S. things called it out here, but in 25 miles of 85% of all the data centers that have been announced in the U.S. 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, to hold 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 safety users, the hyperscalers, working with them right, in terms of designing, in terms of helping them specify the products and materials because they -- each of them have different requests and in terms of the kind of materials they're looking to use in these particular facilities.

So working with them at an early stage. And if you're building a data center as a user in GC, what matters is clearly speed and quality. And that's what you're going to get with CRH given the 2,000 occasions 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 side, the footprint about alone, not the total site is 85 acres we're going to deliver 3 million tons of aggregates into 1 particular job just to give you a sense of the scale. But in terms of that project, we'll be first in, in terms of the lot of the subterranean energy and water infrastructure critical for an investment to that scale, you have to stabilize the site. So 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 at our asphalt and paving in terms of paving all the access roads and indeed the car parks at the end. So these are huge projects that can extend for 2, 3 years, and we're beginning to see that come true in terms of activity levels and backlogs in 2026.

And 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 increasing share of wallet with the hyperscalers and the data center users. And put it all together, it's kind of a really meaningful driver of the long-term growth of the business as we look forward.

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

Jim, looking the results and 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 companies that you have on sustaining that type of margins in the [indiscernible].

Adrian, it was a bit difficult to hear you, but I think it was around the margin performance around the AMS in Q2 and H1, right? But yes, listen, yes. Really pleased, right, in terms of the performance of the AMS business. I mean, I think if we were to call it a standout in the quarter and the half, which is really the American Materials is a really strong performance and a really strong relative performance. I think if you look across 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.

And 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 Materials business. When you look at it , I guess, 2,000 locations, right, and not just locations, but leading market positions to over 200 leading brands and at a regional level across the U.S. 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 high share performance. It's all of that coming to way are 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 drives our growth. and the consistency of performance in what was a challenging first 6 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 mean, I called it out, it is the kind of CRH winning way. It's that coming together across the connected portfolio. But a key part of that is kind of a go-to-market strategy and Randy, would you maybe give us a bit of flavor as to how we think about that and how we, I guess, present ourselves at the customer-facing level.

Yes, maybe 2 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 team. So in 30-plus markets across the U.S., 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. And so 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 it, kind of verticals that are important in terms of supported by megatrends. So in and around data centers, airports, nuclear energy or the whole energy transition building teams with specific levels of expertise in each one of those areas. So they get in early, talk with the hyperscalers of the world from a 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.

So 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, everyone. That's all we have time for today, and thank you for your attention. And 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.

Good day, and welcome to the CRH conference call. My name is Krista, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions]

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 presentation and conference call following our announced agreement to acquire Arcosa this morning, a significant investment for CRH and an acceleration of our growth strategy.

Joining me on the call is Aylwyn Bryan, our CFO; Randy Lake, our COO; and Danilo Juvane, Head of Investor Relations.

Over the next 15 minutes or so, we will provide you with an overview of the proposed transaction. And afterwards, we will be available to take any questions that you may have.

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 2 shown here on the screen. During our presentation, we'll be making some forward-looking statements related 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. We will also present projected financial information, which is based on management's current estimates and assumptions and has been prepared for illustrative purposes.

I will now hand you back to Jim, Aylwyn and Randy.

Thanks, Danilo. First, on Slide 3, a high-level overview of the proposed acquisition, which represents a compelling growth and value creation opportunity for CRH and will reinforce our position as the #1 infrastructure player in North America.

Arcosa is a leading provider of building materials and critical infrastructure products in the United States. With 35 million tons of annual high-quality aggregates, it will strengthen our position as the leader in U.S. aggregates with over 265 million tons of combined annualized production. Under our ownership, it will enhance our connected customer offering in attractive markets aligned with growing infrastructure megatrends.

It is highly complementary and an excellent strategic fit with CRH advancing our aggregates-led connected portfolio strategy. Arcosa has high-quality assets and an experienced management team with a proven track record of execution and a strong cultural alignment with CRH. We expect the acquisition to deliver strong growth and compelling value to CRH shareholders. It is consistent with our disciplined approach to capital deployment, fully aligned with our strategic ambitions and reinforces our position as a leading compounder of capital.

I will now ask Aylwyn to take you through the transaction in further detail.

Thanks, Jim, and hello, everybody. Turning to Slide 4. Our proposed acquisition of Arcosa for a cash consideration of $150 per share reflects a total enterprise value of $8.5 billion. This represents an EV-to-EBITDA multiple of 11.5x based on the midpoint of Arcosa's 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance and including currently expected run rate cost synergies of approximately $175 million.

We intend to fund the transaction with available cash and committed debt financing. It is expected to be accretive to earnings, margins and cash flow in the first 12 months post completion excluding one-off transaction costs. On a pro forma 2026 basis, the transaction is expected to result in a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of approximately 2.4x. We expect this to normalize towards our long-term average of approximately 2x in the 12 months post-completion, and we remain committed to maintaining our strong investment-grade credit rating, which we've held for over 20 years. The transaction is subject to Arcosa's stockholder approval, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and we expect it to close in the first quarter of 2027.

Thanks, Aylwyn. On Slide 5, you can see a high-level overview of Arcosa. At the midpoint of its 2026 guidance, it is expected to generate $2.65 billion of revenue and $565 million of adjusted EBITDA, representing a margin of over 21%. Arcosa comprises 2 infrastructure-related businesses. Construction Products representing approximately 60% of the adjusted EBITDA, and Engineered Structures representing the remaining 40%.

Construction Products is a high-quality connected aggregates-led materials business serving 13 of the 50 largest MSAs in the United States with leading positions in Texas, the Southeast and other high-growth regions.

Engineered Structures is a leading U.S. manufacturer of critical infrastructure products in the high-growth energy transmission market. The business is supported by robust long-term demand underpinned by grid modernization, electrification and data center construction.

I will now ask Randy to provide some further color on each of the businesses.

Thanks, Jim, and hello, everyone. First, to Construction Products on Slide 6, a scaled aggregates platform in high-growth markets. With approximately 1.3 billion tons of aggregate reserves, it's fully aligned with our core strategy of strengthening our aggregates and cementitious businesses, 2 of our key growth platforms, which we highlighted during our Investor Day last year.

As you can see on the map, it has an attractive footprint of aggregates, asphalt and specialty materials, concentrated in Texas, the Southeast and other high-growth markets in the United States. It will also provide us with increased aggregates exposure in some of the fastest-growing MSAs in the United States, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix.

Combined with our existing business, there are significant opportunities to self-supply and create value through our connected portfolio. It will also complement and expand our capabilities in engineered concrete. Additionally, it's a leading U.S. provider of recycled aggregates and stabilized sand, representing 2 attractive growth platforms for CRH. Overall, it will reinforce our position as the leading aggregates producer with over 265 million tons of annualized production in the United States and over 400 million tons globally.

Turning to Slide 7, and Engineered Structures, which will strengthen our capabilities in the fast-growing U.S. energy infrastructure market. It's highly complementary to our connected customer offering across our aggregates, cementitious and critical infrastructure businesses and increases our exposure to growing infrastructure megatrends, supported by essential nondiscretionary investment. For example, as a result of the structural deficit and power supply, U.S. utilities are expected to invest approximately $1.4 trillion in grid infrastructure through 2030.

It further extends and complements our existing participation in energy transmission, one of the fastest-growing and most in-demand segments of the utility value chain. It will also deepen relationships with our shared customer base through a combination of long-term alliances with utility customers in a high-quality backlog, approximating its 2026 forecasted revenue, the business benefits from long-term demand visibility.

And as you can see on the map, it has an extensive manufacturing footprint with 18 manufacturing facilities across the United States and Mexico and benefits from a top 3 market position with leading brands, including Meyer Utility Structures.

Turning to Slide 8, and the synergy and value creation opportunities we've identified so far. With over 1,200 acquisitions completed throughout our history, we have a proven ability to acquire and integrate businesses at scale. And for this acquisition, we're uniquely positioned to deliver significant value creation for shareholders, leveraging on our unmatched scale, connected portfolio and leading performance capabilities.

We currently expect approximately $175 million of run-rate cost synergies to be achieved by year 3. And here, we've outlined the expected phasing with $60 million anticipated in the first year of ownership. We've identified significant opportunities for operational improvements, leveraging our expertise and technical capabilities from across our business to optimize plant performance and improve production efficiencies. It will also be very beneficial from a logistics and network optimization perspective, enabling us to be more efficient in how we service our customers.

There are also opportunities across our global procurement network, leveraging our scale, purchasing power and supply arrangements for materials, equipment and services. And from an integration standpoint, there are opportunities to self-supply our existing road and critical infrastructure businesses as well as optimizing our administrative and support function.

So in summary, the transaction represents strong synergy and value creation potential, and we're excited about the opportunity.

Thanks, Randy. Turning to Slide 9. I'd like to take a moment to highlight how the proposed acquisition of Arcosa aligns with our growth algorithm, which we outlined during last year's Investor Day. As the leading infrastructure player in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on 3 large and growing megatrends, transportation, water and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant growth and value creation for our business going forward. The acquisition of Arcosa will enhance our exposure and capabilities in each of these areas.

Next, the CRH Winning Way, the force multiplier that enables us to fully capitalize on these growing infrastructure megatrends. Through our winning way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus, driving leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. As responsible stewards of our shareholder capital, we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions of scale in attractive high-growth markets. All of this is supported by 4 key enablers: customer centricity, empowered teams, unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of businesses.

In summary, the acquisition of Arcosa together with the benefits of our winning way will reinforce our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry.

Turning now to Slide 10. And as we previously communicated, over the next 5 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, and the acquisition of Arcosa accelerates our progress in this regard while also demonstrating our disciplined approach to capital allocation.

The acquisition of Arcosa is fully aligned with the delivery of our 2030 financial targets: annual revenue growth of between 7% and 9% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 22% to 24% by 2030 and average adjusted free cash flow conversion of over 100%.

Before I turn over to Q&A, I will leave you with a few key takeaways from our presentation this morning. Arcosa is a leading U.S. provider of building materials and critical infrastructure products. With 35 million tons of annual high-quality aggregates production, it will strengthen our position as the leading aggregates producer with over 265 million tons of annualized production in the United States. The proposed acquisition of Arcosa will enhance our connected customer offering in attractive high-growth markets aligned with growing infrastructure megatrends.

In summary, this represents a compelling growth and value creation opportunity for CRH. It is enabled by our unmatched scale and cash generation capabilities, which provides us with the opportunity to deploy capital at scale and to further strengthen our leading positions across 4 connected growth platforms. Overall, the acquisition is a strong endorsement of our superior strategy, connected portfolio and the optionality we have for capital deployment.

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

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.

Congrats on the transaction, and thank you for all the details provided in the presentation. Just 2 questions -- 2 quick questions. The first one is within all this that you explained, what is it exactly that excites you the most from this transaction?

And the second question is, how do you see this strategic fit of the Engineered Structures business of Arcosa within CRH?

Yes, listen, what excites us, Arcosa is a high-quality business, Adrian. Firstly, it's got a really attractive growth profile, and it's highly complementary to our existing business. And it's reinforcing our position as the #1 infrastructure player in North America.

Now, when you look into it, this is one of the largest U.S. aggregates acquisitions in the last 20 years, and it's really further strengthening our position as the leading U.S. and indeed a global aggregates producer. It takes us to about 265 million tons in North America and over 400 million tons globally. And particularly on this transaction, what's kind of exciting is that it is bringing us from an ags perspective into kind of 2 new high-growth MSAs in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix. We already have existing footprints there, but now going in there with ags is really super complementary to our connected portfolio.

I think the deal is kind of fully aligned with our strategy we set out in last year's Investor Day, which is kind of the focus on markets and regions with strong growing infrastructure megatrends and acquiring leading regional positions in high-growth markets all in all the time kind of focusing on enhancing our connected portfolio.

The deal this morning is going to give us strong growth and value creation potential, but attractive synergy opportunities. And we expect the transaction will be earnings margin and cash flow accretive 12 months post-completion. When we look at it from a multiple perspective, post the year 3 synergy rate of about $175 million, it's about 11.5x our synergized multiple, which is pretty much in line with our current trading multiple.

Now, I think the second question was around the Engineered Structures maybe and how it fits. I might ask Randy maybe to come back in on the second part of this, just to talk about some of the underlying drivers in that particular business, but it's highly complementary to our connected customer offering across both our cementitious and our critical infrastructure businesses, and it's increasing our exposure to those growing infrastructure megatrends.

We've actually been deploying capital in this space for the last 2 to 3 years. What it actually does is increases our connected product offering to actually the same customer base, the large utility companies. If you think about it, our existing U.S. IPG infrastructure business, the energy and water business is already supplying into this customer base. And last year's biggest acquisition, Eco Material, is on all these utility sites also. So it's really pulling together our kind of connected product offering to that same customer base.

But maybe, Randy, you might just talk about some of the underlying drivers we see in this space.

Yes. I mean, when we step back and look at Arcosa, first of all, in this space, they're a top 3 player in what we called out as obviously a very fast and growing transmission market. I think as Jim highlighted, it really does complement the capabilities that we currently have in that space. And if you think about not just the grid modernizations, the electrification that's taken place, the data center construction, all 3 of those things are really supporting the underlying drive for long-term growth in that sector.

And I think I mentioned in the opening remarks, the U.S. is expected -- the utilities in the U.S. are expected to invest $1.4 trillion through 2030 in terms of the underlying modernization in transmission and distribution. And I think another interesting point is over 70% of the U.S. grid is greater than 25 years old. So it's not just the additional capacity expansion. It's also modernization of the existing network.

And I think Jim -- lastly, Jim called it out, which is very important in terms of that relationship that we currently already have with the utilities, the work that Arcosa has done in terms of long-term customer alliances. And if you look at their backlog, the high quality level of that backlog gives you a lot of confidence in the mid- to long-term in terms of the need and the underlying investment.

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

Jim, given you have a bit of geographical overlap in Texas and maybe kind of New York, New Jersey. I'm just wondering how you'd compare CRH's existing business with Arcosa's in maybe those 2 regions? And do you anticipate there could be any kind of divestitures or any kind of changes to make the deal go through?

Anthony, yes, listen, Texas, as we would have said, is the biggest state in CRH, right? We have a tremendous connected footprint there already. As I said, what's particularly interesting on the Arcosa deal is that it's bringing us ags, which we didn't have into the DFW MSA, so that's -- and really connecting what is a very strong footprint there already for us. So that's particularly exciting about it. The transaction itself is going to be subject to kind of customer closing conditions, including, firstly, Arcosa's shareholder and then regulatory approvals. And we expected to close in Q1 2027, but we don't anticipate any issues.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America.

Gentlemen, just -- I know you touched on it. I realize with Engineered Structures, it's exposed to megatrends with utility and grid CapEx. Can you just explain to us -- I mean, there's -- I think there's wind in there as well at 10% of Arcosa, 10% to 12%. Is that something you intend to keep? Do you have to invest more in this business? Is it higher capital intensity than the material side? And is the synergies -- is it complementary just because of the customer base? Or is it also just certain products you can cross-sell? Just help us understand a little bit more how the overall portfolio of Engineered Structures kind of fits in with CRH today.

Sure, Michael. Maybe a couple of questions there. Firstly, maybe I'll take the first one in terms of the wind side of it. Yes, you're right, the wind is a little less than 10% of Arcosa's business today. I think we can all agree on the kind of the opportunity and the need to continue to invest in the power generation network across the U.S. And in fact, wind today is still the cheapest and the quickest and fastest form to deploy in terms of power generation from that perspective.

It also has -- if you're familiar with Arcosa, the plants themselves are incredibly flexible in terms of the options you give, right? And when we see the demand that we have on the power generation side, we have the optionality also to pivot into that to meet the -- what we have today, a very significant kind of market dislocation between the demand side and the supply side.

In terms of the synergy side of it, maybe I'll kick it off, maybe ask Randy to comment on some of the details side of it, but -- we have a long history of acquisitions in CRH, right? And I think we've a proven ability to acquire and to integrate businesses at scale, 38 acquisitions last year in 2025. We're continuously able to leverage our unmatched scale, the connected portfolio and our kind of performance capabilities. Clearly, Arcosa is a public company acquisition. But in addition, there's very strong kind of operational synergies also.

But maybe, Randy, do you want to give a bit more color on those?

Yes. I mean, just to build on that, obviously, there's a history there in terms of our ability to integrate at scale. And I look at this deal as really kind of right down the middle in terms of what we're very, very good at and what we deliver in terms of synergies. And you would expect it to be in the areas that Jim called out. So certainly, we see kind of underlying opportunities and performance and production efficiencies. I think that the maximizing the logistics network will be a critical element of that. We called out Texas. It's our largest state. It's kind of plug and play in terms of self-supply. A lot of opportunity in and around just making sure that we're optimizing the logistical components of the deal there.

Our scale is going to certainly bring advantages from a procurement standpoint, and so we would anticipate significant opportunity there. And I think we laid it out in such a way that makes sense, $60 million in terms of the first 12 months and then $175 million by the end of year 3. I think also what we've learned over time, and I think we've done very well, is kind of dedicating resources and teams working side by side with the operating folks to drive the implementation of some of these practices as well as making sure that we're tracking and delivering on what we've laid out today in terms of synergies.

Your next question comes from the line of Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley.

You've already touched on a number of these points, but just wanted to maybe unpack the Engineered Structures, maybe the strategic significance a little bit more -- in a little bit more detail. Just maybe any way to kind of quantify the potential for revenue synergies here given some of the overlap and perhaps customers?

And then also just on the backlog visibility, one of, I think, the notable aspects of -- for instance, some of the work that you do in data centers is how you can go kind of work with the customer a little bit earlier on than the traditional kind of aggregates model. So can you just talk about the connectivity of the portfolio? And how maybe having more backlog visibility maybe impact the rest of your business broadly?

Yes, sure, Angel. Good to hear from you. Yes. I think in terms of the Engineered Structures business, as we said today, it's kind of building on where we've been deploying capital recently in the last number of years and really tapping into that megatrend of infrastructure build-out, right, across the kind of faster-growing regions of the U.S. So we're already supplying into that customer base through our IPG energy infrastructure work, but also to the Eco Material, who is actually physically on all the utility company sites as well and providing services. So it's a very interesting connection from that perspective to increase, I guess, a kind of share of wallet with a high-quality, fast-growing customer base -- utility customer base.

And when you look at the demand projections that are out there, you're looking at kind of very high single-digit top line growth rates in terms of underlying volume demand over the next kind of 5 to 7 years in this particular space. So very good revenue kind of synergies abilities.

You are absolutely right in terms of data centers, we are now active, I think, at this stage, over nearly 150 data centers across the U.S., right? We really kind of punch above our weight in terms of our share because of that connected product solution. It's not just about providing kind of one particular product like aggregates or concrete, but you're absolutely right, we're often in the very first with this exact kind of energy and water infrastructure on the subterranean services that are going into these sites.

Then, particularly as well in terms of soil stabilization, a very interesting aspect of this Arcosa acquisition. They have a very nice kind of niche high-growth area in soil stabilization, which is going to be super complementary to the whole build-out of data centers. And then, you bring in the rest of the connected portfolio in terms aggregates, concrete, asphalt, paving, et cetera. So again, it is acquiring high-quality connected infrastructure assets in fast-growing states, right? And that's what's particularly attractive for us and why we're excited about the transaction this morning.

Thanks, Angel.

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

So you guys talked quite a bit about clearly the Engineered Structures and utility, et cetera. You touched for a second on wind. But you mentioned, Jim, plant optionality, and Arcosa is currently increasing capacity within their utility structures business, converting a wind facility to utility structures. This is -- and clearly, utility has been a high-growth area for Arcosa. And I think once this plant conversion takes place, wind contribution to EBITDA for Arcosa is pretty insignificant. So my question is with some of the changes on the horizon that we're seeing in wind, do you expect to kind of continue to deemphasize wind overall? Or do you think as we kind of get into -- through '27 and into '28, as maybe the landscape becomes a little more clear, that there would be more stability in that part of the business where you could see maybe putting a little bit of growth capital into that? Just how you're thinking about the wind business once some of this plant optionality is already taking place?

Yes, absolutely, Trey. Good to hear from you. Yes, you're right, right? I mean, post the conversion of the ongoing Tulsa facility in Oklahoma, wind is going to be a pretty small part of even the Arcosa footprint, right, from that perspective. As I said, kind of in the introduction question as well, it is an area that right now today is the fastest and the cheapest way to deploy power generation onshore from a U.S. perspective. So that will be interesting to see that how that plays out over the next number of years. What gives us comfort around it is that optionality and the speed at which you're able to convert those facilities. And obviously, the excellent in-house technical expertise within Arcosa, but they've done this time and time before as well. So it's kind of a very small piece of the Arcosa footprint as we go forward, but there's optionality around us.

Okay. That's good. And one other one. We've touched on the cost synergies and some of the other things, but specifically around the -- on the construction business for -- Construction Products business for Arcosa, you mentioned there is a little bit of overlap and some things like this. But do you see more as you think about revenue synergy opportunities? Do you think that would be more kind of on the Engineered Structures, utility side of the house? Or do you see some opportunity on construction as well?

Yes. It's a good question. I'd say, yes, on Engineered Structures for sure, but you actually see significant opportunities in the material space as well. If you look at just the commonality of customers who actually consume and use our product and the way that we go to market in terms of the connected portfolio, we see opportunities to increase share and growth in those particular customers. So we see as much, probably even more opportunity in that traditional material space as we do with the engineering products.

And we have time for one more question, and that question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.

And really kind of a 2-part question. First, this is the -- one of the largest deals in the industry in recent years, certainly transformative. The only prior thing that was as big as you switching your primary listing. So what does this say about the scale of the M&A opportunities in the market? And then just a follow-up on that, and we had a great opportunity last week to see your largest quarry in the system in -- just outside of Austin. And I do note that Arcosa's assets has a quarry on the other side, so it nicely complements that market. But could you break out true blue aggregates versus recycled and other materials? How much of your heavy materials is true hard rock versus your recycled? But first, focusing primarily on the M&A opportunities out there.

Kathryn, good to hear from you. Yes, listen, just the deal this morning, just to put it in context for us, it's a little over 10% of the market cap of CRH, right? But -- and we have a strong tradition in -- from an M&A perspective. In fact, we've done over 1,200 acquisitions in our history. I think when you look at the kind of structure of the business today in the United States, firstly, really due to the kind of fragmented nature of it, most of the deals we do are kind of primarily bolt-ons. If you look at the 38 deals last year, the majority of them, I think, over 30, came from kind of local bolt-ons across the businesses. But for us, it's not really about the size of any particular transaction. It's more about the scale and the value creation opportunity that we have.

Now, we called out in the Investor Day last year, given that scale, we have up to $40 billion of financial capacity out to 2030, but that leaves us uniquely positioned to capitalize on opportunities like Arcosa. We have a strong pipeline still in terms of M&A, right? And we've got good opportunities where to deploy capital at scale and really to build on our leading positions across our connected portfolios. We called it out in terms of the platforms of growth, whether its aggregates, cementitious, roads or kind of water infrastructure and energy infrastructure. We've got very good optionality in terms of where we deploy capital. And I kind of always said, what comes with optionality is discipline, right, isn't that, where you allocate that capital. And that's a very important point of it as well. I think it all comes together in terms of reinforcing our position as kind of the leading compounder of capital in this space in the U.S.

In terms of the second one, and I think if I understood it properly, Kathryn, just in terms of the Arcosa, over 90% of the aggregate number we gave this morning is coming from virgin aggregates and the remainder is coming from recycled ags.

Excellent. Best of luck.

Thank you very much, Kathryn.

Well, that's all we have time for today, and thank you all for your attention. And 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 July when we will report our results for the second quarter of 2026.

Thank you. Have a good day and stay safe.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the CRH First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. My name is Krista, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions]

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 Q1 2026 results presentation and conference call. Joining me on the call is Nancy Buese, our CFO; Randy Lake, our COO; and Tom Holmes, our Head of Investor Relations.

Before we get started, I'll hand over to Tom for some brief opening remarks.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to Slide 2, shown here on screen. During our presentation, we'll 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 the 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 you back to Jim, Nancy and Randy.

Thanks, Tom. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we will take you through a brief presentation of our first quarter results, highlighting the key components of our performance for the first 3 months of the year as well as providing you with an update on our expectations for the year as a whole. We are also going to discuss our recent portfolio management and capital allocation activities and why we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth and value creation for our shareholders.

First, on Slide 4, some key messages from our results announcement. I am pleased to report a strong first quarter performance backed by our superior strategy, unmatched scale and connected portfolio of businesses. Overall, we delivered further growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA and margin compared to the prior year period, reflecting good momentum from early season project activity, disciplined commercial execution and positive contributions from acquisitions.

We remain focused on allocating and reallocating capital for higher growth as we continue to build a connected portfolio. In the year-to-date, we have agreed to divest of 3 noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion, reflecting our relentless focus on the active management of our portfolio to maximize shareholder value. We have also announced that we are investing approximately $900 million in 9 value-accretive acquisitions. The largest of these is an agreement to acquire Axius Water, further strengthening our position as a leading U.S. water infrastructure player, and I will take you through that in further detail later in the presentation.

We also continue to return significant amounts of cash to our shareholders. Our ongoing share buyback program has returned approximately $400 million so far this year. And today, we are commencing a further quarterly tranche of $300 million to be completed no later than the 28th of July. I am also pleased to report that the Board has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, representing an increase of 5% on the prior year, in line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth.

Notwithstanding the current macroeconomic uncertainty, the underlying demand environment across our key markets remains positive, and we are pleased to reaffirm our financial guidance for 2026, reflecting a strong start to the year as well as the net impact of divestitures and acquisitions agreed in the year-to-date. 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 billion and $8.5 billion, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH.

Turning now to Slide 5 and our financial highlights for the first 3 months of the year. Overall, a robust performance and a good start to the season with revenues, adjusted EBITDA and margin all well ahead of the prior year period. Total revenues of $7.4 billion were 9% ahead, supported by good underlying demand, disciplined commercial execution and contributions from acquisitions. This translated into adjusted EBITDA of $586 million, 18% ahead and a further 70 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting continued operational improvements and strong cost discipline across our businesses.

Turning now to Slide 6. And here, you can see our growth algorithm, which drives our performance year after year. As the leading infrastructure player in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on 3 large and growing megatrends: transportation, water and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant growth and value creation for our business going forward.

Next, the CRH Winning Way, the force multiplier that enables us to capitalize on these growing infrastructure megatrends. This is what really sets CRH apart. Through our Winning Way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus, driving leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. As responsible stewards of our shareholders' capital, we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions of scale in attractive high-growth markets. All of this is supported by 4 key enablers: customer centricity, empowered teams, unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of businesses.

Overall, our growth algorithm underpins our proven track record of consistent long-term delivery and our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry.

Now at this point, I will ask Randy to take you through the performance of each of our businesses.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. Turning to Slide 8 and starting with Americas Materials Solutions, which is supported by our strategic alignment with growing infrastructure megatrends. Overall, our business had a strong start to the year. Total revenues were 21% ahead of the prior year period, with robust volumes across all product lines, reflecting good early season project activity, strong commercial execution and contributions from acquisitions.

In Essential Materials, first quarter revenues were 31% ahead. Our aggregates volumes increased by 14%, while pricing was 1% behind, reflecting geographic and project-related mix effects. On a mix-adjusted basis, our aggregate pricing was 5% ahead. Cement volumes were 10% ahead, while pricing declined by 1%, reflecting regional variances across our operating footprint.

In Road Solutions, growth in both asphalt and ready-mixed concrete volumes, along with increased paving activity, resulted in Q1 revenues 16% ahead of the prior year period.

Now let me take you through some examples of the projects that have been really driving good early season activity across our business, leveraging our scale, capabilities and connected portfolio. In our Road Solutions business, we're involved in the widening and reconstruction of I-95 in South Carolina, supplying over 0.5 million tons of asphalt and 250,000 tons of aggregates. In the reindustrialization space, we're active in the construction of a large chip plant in Boise, Idaho, where we're supplying over 0.5 million tons of aggregates and cementitious materials through our fully connected offering.

We're also participating in the construction of a large data center facility in Michigan, delivering over 1.2 million tons of aggregates in the first quarter alone. Of course, it's worth noting that this is the seasonally less significant quarter for our Americas Materials Solutions business. But looking ahead and as the construction season gets fully underway across many of our markets, I'm encouraged by the positive momentum we're seeing in our bidding activity and our backlogs.

Next to Americas Building Solutions on Slide 9, where our business delivered a solid performance in the first quarter despite contending with adverse weather conditions in many regions and subdued new-build residential activity. Revenues in our Building & Infrastructure Solutions business were 4% ahead of the prior year, supported by positive data center and utility infrastructure demand. In Outdoor Living Solutions, while the underlying demand environment for residential repair and remodel activity remains resilient, a delayed start to the season due to adverse weather resulted in Q1 revenues 3% behind the prior year.

Moving to International Solutions now on Slide 10, where our business delivered a strong first quarter performance, supported by good pricing momentum and disciplined cost control. Total revenue growth of 5% translated into 32% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 130 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting improved operational efficiencies and contributions from acquisitions. In Western Europe, activity levels were supported by infrastructure and reindustrialization demand, while in Central and Eastern Europe, activity levels are recovering following adverse winter weather across the region.

In Australia, our business continues to perform very well, benefiting from positive underlying demand, operational improvements and synergy delivery from recent acquisitions. So overall, a strong start to the year for our business.

And at this point, I'll hand you over to Jim to take you through our recent capital allocation activities in further detail.

Thanks, Randy. Active portfolio management is a continuous process in CRH. We are constantly allocating and reallocating our capital to maximize value for our shareholders. As you can see here on Slide 12, in the year-to-date, we have agreed 3 strategic divestitures of noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion.

In addition to the previously announced divestiture of Construction Accessories, we have reached agreements to divest of our Lawn & Garden business, a manufacturer and supplier of mulch, soil and decorative stone, for $1.1 billion and also MoistureShield, a manufacturer of composite decking. The divestiture of MoistureShield closed in early April, while the Construction Accessories and Lawn & Garden transactions are expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Together, these transactions demonstrate our commitment to the active management of our portfolio and the reallocation of capital into higher growth, more connected businesses to maximize value for our shareholders.

At this point, on Slide 13, I would like to provide an overview of our U.S. water infrastructure platform, 1 of our 4 key growth platforms, which we highlighted during last year's Investor Day. We are a leading player in this attractive high-growth market, benefiting from resilient public funding and nondiscretionary investment. Reindustrialization and an aging water infrastructure network with significant investment needs are the key drivers of demand. And with approximately 1/3 of the U.S. water infrastructure more than 50 years old, the need to upgrade the systems that collect, transport and treat water is critical.

Our national reach and expertise give us a significant advantage as investment in this area accelerates. And as you can see on the slide, we have strategically focused on 2 key areas: water transmission and water quality, the fastest-growing segments of the over $100 billion U.S. water ecosystem.

In addition to a robust funding backdrop, the market also remains very fragmented with significant runway for further growth through value-accretive acquisitions, enabling us to leverage our unmatched scale, connected portfolio and proven growth capabilities. Our water infrastructure platform is also closely connected to our leading aggregates, cementitious and road platforms. Over 80% of the products we produce in our water business consume aggregates and cementitious materials. And since over 85% of roads require water management systems, the strength of our water platform reinforces the benefits of our connected portfolio and shared customer base.

Turning now to Slide 14. In the water quality space, we are pleased to announce the expansion of our existing water infrastructure offering with an agreement to acquire Axius Water, a leading provider of water quality and nutrient removal solutions in North America for approximately $700 million. This acquisition will further strengthen our existing position as a leading water infrastructure player in the United States. With a strong, experienced management team and best-in-class customer-centric design and engineering capabilities, it is an excellent fit and highly complementary to our existing water platform.

Integrating Axius into our connected portfolio will enhance our customer offering and drive significant commercial, operational and self-supply synergies. It will also strengthen our IP portfolio across the water value chain through its extensive R&D capabilities. Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to complete in the second quarter of the year, and we will keep you updated as that progresses.

Overall, our agreement to acquire Axius, along with a further 8 value-accretive acquisitions completed in the year-to-date, demonstrates the continued build-out of our connected portfolio and our commitment to allocating capital into attractive high-growth markets.

I will now ask Nancy to take you through why we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth and value creation for our shareholders.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. As you can see here on Slide 16, we believe our unmatched scale and connected portfolio delivers higher and more consistent long-term growth. As the #1 infrastructure play in North America, we benefit from increased exposure to publicly funded construction, which is less volatile and more predictable compared to other areas of construction. We've built leading positions in attractive high-growth markets aligned with 3 secular megatrends: transportation, water and reindustrialization, which together represent one of the most compelling growth opportunities in decades.

We drive performance excellence through a culture of continuous improvement, replicated at scale across each of our 4,000 locations. You can see this in our first quarter performance with further margin expansion driven by the operational improvements and strategic growth CapEx investments we've made across our business. Supported by our strong balance sheet and cash generation capabilities, we expect to have approximately $40 billion of financial capacity over the next 5 years to invest for future growth and deliver further returns to our shareholders.

Our fully connected offering across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water also enables us to become more deeply embedded with our customers, driving higher pull-through demand for our Essential Materials and capturing a greater share of wallet on construction projects. It also results in lower capital intensity and a more variable cost base, enabling us to adapt quickly to any challenges that come our way while maximizing growth, cash generation and return on capital.

Combined with our unmatched scale, the connected nature of our portfolio provides us with superior growth opportunities, multiple avenues to grow both organically and through acquisitions. We have a strong recurring M&A pipeline and the ability to deliver enhanced synergies supported by our proven growth capabilities. In fact, when we look at our track record of synergy delivery in recent years, we typically achieve a 2 to 2.5x reduction in our entry multiple, which really highlights the value we can create for our shareholders.

A recent example of this is our 2024 acquisition of the Hunter cement plant in Texas, which has delivered synergies well ahead of our original expectations and our typical run rate. This was driven by operational improvements, increased self-supply and logistics optimization. Similarly, although earlier in the integration process, our 2025 acquisition of Eco Material is also performing strongly with some good early wins on synergy delivery.

Overall, our unmatched scale and connected portfolio enables us to deliver higher and more consistent long-term growth.

On Slide 17, you can see the consistency of our performance over the last decade. In addition to growing our top line, we have delivered 15% compound annual growth in adjusted EBITDA, approximately 110 basis points of average annual margin expansion and 18% compound annual growth in diluted earnings per share. Our track record across each of these financial metrics demonstrates our ability to deliver consistent long-term growth and performance. And as you can see, from a total shareholder return perspective, the story is just as compelling. Over the same time frame, we've generated a compound annual total shareholder return of 19%, highlighting our position as a leading compounder of capital and a powerful platform for shareholder value creation.

Thanks, Nancy. Now before I provide an update on our financial expectations for the full year, let me share our latest thoughts on the outlook across our markets. On to Slide 19 and first to transportation, where the demand backdrop is robust, supported by the continued rollout of federal funding through the IIJA, where approximately 50% of highway funds are yet to be deployed. State-level funding is also strong with 2026 DOT budgets up 6% on the prior year. In fact, 2026 is expected to be a record year for investment in transportation infrastructure, which bodes well for our business given our unmatched scale and market-leading position.

We remain encouraged by the progress being made in Congress regarding a multiyear reauthorization of highway funding with continued bipartisan support for increased infrastructure investment in the years ahead. In our International business, we expect robust demand in infrastructure to continue, supported by significant investment from government and EU funding programs. We also expect to see continued demand for water infrastructure with strong growth projected in the areas of transmission and water quality.

In reindustrialization, we expect continued strong demand for our large-scale manufacturing and data center investment in both the U.S. and our international markets. And with the benefits of our unmatched scale and connected customer offering, we are well positioned for growth in this area going forward. In the residential sector, we expect repair and remodel demand in the U.S. to remain resilient, while new-build activity remains subdued as a result of ongoing affordability challenges. As we have said in the past, this is not a demand issue, and we believe the long-term fundamentals in this market remain very attractive, supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of underbuild.

In summary, the overall trend is positive for our business with our strategic focus on growing infrastructure megatrends and the benefits of the CRH Winning Way, leaving us uniquely positioned to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities that lie ahead.

Turning now to Slide 20. And against that backdrop, we have reaffirmed our financial guidance for 2026, reflecting a strong start to the year as well as the net impact of divestitures and acquisitions agreed in the year-to-date. 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 billion and $8.5 billion, net income between $3.9 billion 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. It's still very early in the construction season, but we will update you on our expectations as the year unfolds and as the season gets fully underway across our markets.

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

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.

Congrats on the results. My question is just if you can provide further color on your guidance for this year, especially after these transactions that you did and the underlying assumptions that you have.

Good to hear you. I might ask Nancy maybe to come back at the end just on some of the detail, the puts and takes in terms of the full year guidance, but very pleased this morning to be reaffirming our full year guidance, which is really reflecting the strong start we've had to the year in Q1. And at this stage of the year, what we look for is that all the key building blocks are really in place early in the season to deliver on the guidance.

And what we're actually seeing across our markets right now is a positive demand backdrop. We've seen it in the Q1 performance and into March and April with strong early season project activity. And we're seeing good growth across areas such as our roads and reindustrialization, which are performing well. I think, again, the guidance is supported by the continued rollout of the IIJA and very strong local state funding. And that's providing us with really good backlogs at this point of the year, which are nicely up year-on-year.

In addition, we've had a really good start from a pricing perspective. Pricing momentum across all our businesses has been good in the first quarter with really strong execution across our commercial teams. And we've had a very good winter maintenance program as well this season. And that kind of gives us the confidence in terms of giving the guidance today and for another year of margin expansion.

So putting all that together, pleased to reiterate the guidance for the year with adjusted EBITDA between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion.

Nancy?

As Jim said, it's been a really busy start from a portfolio perspective. We've had $1.9 billion of divestments announced and about $900 million of acquisitions. So when you think about the scope impact for 2026, we would expect about $200 million of net incremental EBITDA contribution. And just as a reminder, that's unchanged from our previous guidance. So with all the ins and outs, the previous guidance had already included the divestment of the Construction Accessories business. So now that's also reflecting the impact of the further acquisitions and divestments that we announced today.

Your next question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

I wanted to ask you about just what we're seeing in energy costs. And with the energy price spike, how are you thinking about the impact on your vertically integrated business model and the extent to which your hedging programs allow you to mitigate that impact?

David, yes, clearly, we've seen a lot of volatility and spikes in energy in recent months. But maybe first to kind of contextualize it and kind of size it, for us, energy is approximately about 5% of our total annual revenues. And as we would have said on kind of previous earnings calls, we have a very well managed, well -- kind of, very mature hedging policy in place, and we typically cover out on a kind of rolling 9-month basis. And that -- what that gives us is really good visibility for our energy costs for the year ahead. And right now, we're kind of focusing on our guidance, that we just reaffirmed this morning, and really looking for another year of margin expansion.

I might ask Randy, though, maybe just to give a bit of a flavor as to how the teams -- the commercial teams are responding in the field to this recent energy spike.

Yes. I'd say the team, certainly, we do this on a market-by-market basis, but really experienced commercial teams who focus certainly on value delivery, and we've dealt with periods of volatility before where we've seen significant spikes and shocks. But our focus really is on a market-by-market basis, making sure that we recover the increases, any increase we would experience in input costs, and fundamentally protecting margins. It's about advancing those to our expectations that we're calling out even today in terms of growing margins.

Additionally, I'd say we have already started kind of midyear price increases in a very targeted way. If that uncertainty continues, we'll continue to evolve that strategy. But we're playing off the front foot, being very proactive in the area, and the teams have done a terrific job, again, about protecting those margins.

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

Jim, just circling back to your full year guidance, could you talk a little bit more about sort of the underlying assumptions for aggs and cement volume and price assumptions for the year?

Sure. Absolutely, Anthony. Good to hear from you. Listen, I'll ask Randy maybe to give you the specifics by market and volume and prices. But as I said kind of in the opening question, a really good start to the year, with overall strong underlying demand. We see it in our backlogs and a really good start to the year across all the businesses from a pricing perspective. But maybe, Randy?

Yes. I think we called it out in the presentation. Certainly, Q1 is off to a really good start. So volumes up on agg, 14%; cement, 10%. I think Jim mentioned it, the volume within the context of our backlog, that really gives us that 6- to 9-month window in terms of underlying activity levels. And we continue to see both bidding activity, importantly, what we're winning, both on a revenue and then volume standpoint, improve year-over-year. So it really reaffirms kind of what we called out at the beginning of the year, which we anticipated from an agg standpoint, low single-digit improvement in volume and supported by mid-single digit in pricing.

And maybe just calling out the price on the agg side. I think for me and our commercial teams, the most important metric in Q1, because you can get some volatility, is really around the adjusted -- mix-adjusted pricing, and we see that at 5%. That's indicative of what we should expect to see for the full year. So that -- the teams have done a terrific job. It's a metric we lean heavily on at this time of year. So good to see the progress there and really supports our midyear single-digit price expectations for the full year.

Looking at cement in the Americas, in particular, again, good momentum, good backlog, good early start to the season. Certainly, you saw the pricing move back a bit in totality. You're going to see regional differences. We're coming off 3 exceptional years, strong years in terms of pricing. But when we look at the backlogs, again, I'd say we would expect low single-digit improvement in volumes and low single-digit improvement in pricing as well. So teams are doing a nice job there.

On an international basis, Europe and Australia, the weather certainly impacted our business in Europe, in particular, in January and February, but it's recovered very nicely in March and April, reflecting good project backlog and underlying demand that really gives us visibility in terms of the full year, again, low single-digit volume improvement in our International platform and mid-single-digit improvement in pricing. And you can see that coming through in Q1, a 3% improvement from last year.

So all the signals are strong and really does iterate -- and reiterate kind of our focus and the guidance we gave in terms of the demand picture.

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

As typical, you guys continue to be very active in portfolio optimization. Jim, maybe you could give us maybe a little additional color on the year-to-date divestments? And then also, how should we be thinking about divestitures or divestments going forward?

Sure, Trey. Good to hear you. Yes. Listen, a very good first quarter in terms of portfolio activity, right? We're very pleased with it. And when we look at portfolio activity in CRH, it's a continuous process. It's not a one-off event. It's something we continuously do. And we announced this morning that 3 strategic divestitures of noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion. Now every capital allocation decision, whether it's on the investment side or the divestment side or growth CapEx, in CRH is always looked at through the lens of trying to maximize shareholder value.

Now these were good businesses that we're divesting of, but we really had the opportunity, we took the opportunity, to recycle the proceeds into faster-growing and connected platforms. And in this case, taking the opportunity to increase our exposure to the kind of faster-growing water infrastructure sector. And I think going forward, it should be more of the same, Trey. You should expect us to continue to look for opportunities to optimize our portfolio.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners.

You mentioned -- Jim, I think as you mentioned in your prepared remarks, a positive outlook on the next reauthorization of IIJA. Maybe you could share -- you or Randy can share a little bit of view on what you're hearing from your contacts, size of what will be provided, maybe timing? Would there be any issues you think that would disrupt later this year into early next, any project bidding if there's a continuing resolution, or Congress doesn't get its act together before September 30?

Yes. Good question. I guess maybe take a step back first. Jim called it out in the opening remarks in terms of the underlying funding with IIJA yet to be deployed, almost 50% has yet to hit the street. And you combine that with really the proactive measures that the states have taken over the last number of years, and you have a really strong view in terms of not only short-term but long-term funding and the demand environment. I mentioned on the pricing side, what gives us the optimism around the ability to deliver is certainly our backlogs. We are seeing, and we track this every week, kind of the quantum that we're bidding continue to grow. We're winning our fair share. Revenues and overall volumes are improving year-over-year. So you're seeing the benefits of both IIJA and the states coming through nicely.

I think what we're hearing is, there's positive conversations, both from the administration and from Congress, both in the House and the Senate. I think fundamentally, there's this understanding and appreciation of the need for the investment. It's historically been bipartisan. There's no change in terms of the conversations that are happening today in and around that. I think there's also an understanding that there needs to be a meaningful step-up in the investment in core infrastructure, which is great for us when we talk about roads and bridges and highways, that's core infrastructure. And so there's alignment both in the administration and Congress around that. So I think we're optimistic that a bill will get passed in the second half of the year.

In terms of the quantum, I mean, there's numbers all over the place. I think fundamentally, what we believe and what we hear is that it will be a step-up, certainly a meaningful step-up from what we have today. And I think more importantly is the underlying understanding that we need to have that kind of level of investment.

I guess, to your question, if they can't reach a new piece of legislation? We've been here before, we call -- go into what they call continuing resolution. I think what would be interesting about that is that we're coming off peak levels of investment in terms of the IIJA, a significant step-up in '26 from '25. So you're coming from record levels that will continue into '27. That gives us a lot of surety -- and more importantly, our customers, the states, a lot of surety in terms of not only volume and demand in '26, but into '27 as well.

So again, I think there's great support, good momentum and conversations. All those things will lead one way or the other to higher level of investment and good outlook for our business.

Your next question comes from the line of Colin Sheridan with Davy.

You had covered off the energy side pretty well on the cost front. I was just wondering if you could maybe give us an update on the more general cost environment and maybe an update on the winter-fill program as well.

Yes. Sure, Colin. Listen, as we said in February and really seen us continue to see it, we're seeing inflation in other cost items beyond energy also. And it's mainly in the same areas, again, in terms of labor, raw materials, maintenance and subcontractors. And again, overall, we're continuing to expect kind of mid-single-digit inflation in 2026 across those categories. Now that really highlights the importance of the continued price momentum that we've been touching on earlier in the call as well. And that together gives us that outlook of margin expansion for the year.

Now in terms of the winter-fill program this year, in 2026, yes, if you take a step back first, it is one of our key competitive advantages that we have as part of our Roads business. And it is unique to CRH, our off-season storage capability at scale. We have the ability and we do -- we store about half our annual liquid requirement we accumulated off-season. And we've built up that capacity over several decades at this point in time. And it really is one of the benefits of having that scale in our Road business and our connected portfolio.

Now what does it give us? It gives us kind of 2 key strategic advantages, right? First is on the procurement side, right? We have the ability to acquire at scale, off-season with good procurement advantages, and we will get certainty of cost before we head into the season. And it also gives us security of supply, right? In certain parts of our business, you have a kind of limited enough paving season that runs from about now to Thanksgiving. So it's important that we have the product available to meet the kind of backlogs and demand we have.

So this year, we've had a very well-executed winter-fill program. We are exactly where we want to be right now as the season kind of shifts into top gear, and we're well positioned for another strong year of growth in our Roads business in 2026.

We have time for one more question, and that question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.

As we close today's call, just one follow-up really more on getting further clarification and color, more importantly, on your acquisitions year-to-date. And as you think about the divestitures, which were, as you said, noncore and then the addition of Axius, how does the current pipeline of acquisitions look? And maybe give a little bit more color of how that fits into the broad strategy that you outlined in your Investor Day last September.

Sure, Kathryn, absolutely. Yes, listen, we've had a good start to the year in Q1, right, from an M&A perspective with 9 acquisitions announced for a total consideration of $900 million. And really, they're spread across the 4 connected platforms, across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. And all of these platforms, they're beneficiaries of large and growing infrastructure megatrends that we called out on our Investor Day.

Now maybe first, just before we talk about Axius, just briefly to give an overview of our kind of water infrastructure platform. For us, it's a highly attractive and a core growth platform. And it operates in high-growth markets, which are supported by very strong secular tailwinds. It's also a sector with very significant investment needs, particularly in the U.S. after decades of underinvestment in this particular space. And it's a sector which has robust public funding backdrop.

Now over the last 50 years, we've been building out a leading position in the water infrastructure place, primarily for us, focusing on 2 key areas around transmission and water quality. Now this morning, we announced the acquisition of Axius, so maybe looking at that. It's an excellent fit for existing water infrastructure business, and it's really consistent with our connected water strategy and kind of strengthens our customer offering in the water quality area in particular. What it does is making us more deeply embedded with our customers. It's increasing our share of wallet on water infrastructure projects and particularly on Axius, from a synergy perspective, Kathryn, there's really good opportunity primarily from the commercial side, but also on the operational and in terms of self-supply synergies across our connected portfolio by being able to supply across some of the other platforms into Axius as well.

Now maybe the last part of the question. I think the pipeline right now. It's strong, Kathryn, right? I think, again, with our unmatched scale and the connected portfolio, we have significant optionality for where we deploy capital. And you've seen that over the last 12 months, right, where we've continued to invest across each of the 4 platforms. In the U.S., in terms of aggregates, we announced a deal of North American Aggregates last year. The deal last year was Eco Material, cementitious deal towards that in September 2025. Talley Construction in the Roads business last year. And in terms of the water platform, we did the investment in VODA.ai and now the Axius deal.

So the pipeline is strong right now. What we're doing consistently is that we're continuing to build backlogs of optionality across each of those 4 platforms. But again, every capital allocation decision will be looked at through the lens of maximizing shareholder value. And over the next 5 years, with an estimated $40 billion of the financial capacity, we're really well positioned to continue to deliver growth and value creation by continuing to deploy that capital across those 4 growth platforms and regions.

Well, that is all we have time for today. Thank you for all your attention. And 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 July when we will report our results for the second quarter of 2026.

Thank you, and have a good day and stay safe. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the CRH Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results Presentation. My name is Christa, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions]

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, CRH, and you're all very welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results presentation and conference call. Joining me on the call is Nancy Buese, our CFO; Randy Lake, our COO; and Tom Holmes, Head of Investor Relations. Before we get started, I'll hand over to Tom for some brief opening remarks.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to Slide 2, shown here on the screen. During our presentation, we'll 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 the factors outlined on this slide. For more details, please refer to our annual report and our other SEC filings, which are available on our website.

I'll now hand you back to Jim, Nancy and Randy.

Thanks, Tom. Over the next 30 minutes or so, we will take you through a brief presentation of our fourth quarter and full year results, highlighting the key drivers of our performance over the course of 2025 as well as providing you with an early indication of our expectations for the year ahead. For us at CRH, the efficient allocation of capital is a core competency. Through our disciplined and value-focused approach, every dollar we deploy is rigorously assessed to maximize shareholder value.

This morning, we are going to discuss our capital allocation activities during 2025 and how we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth for our shareholders. Turning to Slide 4. We are pleased to announce a record financial performance for 2025 with another year of double-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA and our 12th consecutive year of margin expansion. All of this is delivered through the dedication and commitment of 83,000 people across our business. And I am proud of how our teams executed against the strategic priorities we outlined during our Investor Day last September.

Our performance was further supported by our growth algorithm and the CRH winning way, which is deeply embedded in our culture and the engine behind everything we do. 2025 was also a busy year investing for future growth and value creation. Our ability to deploy capital in high-growth markets integrate at scale and deliver unique synergies through our connected portfolio is a key differentiator for our business. We invested approximately $4.1 billion in 38 value-accretive acquisitions across our 4 connected growth platforms of aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. And we have an attractive pipeline of further growth opportunities in front of us, supported by our unmatched scale, connected portfolio and proven growth capabilities.

We also invested $1.7 billion in growth CapEx projects, leveraging our size and scale to fully capitalize on high returning, low-risk investment opportunities that will drive organic growth, support margin expansion and create long-term shareholder value. The strength of our balance sheet also enables us to deliver significant accretive returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

In line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth, I am pleased to report that the Board has declared a further quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, representing an increase of 5% compared to the prior year. In relation to our ongoing share buyback program, today, we are commencing a further quarterly tranche of up to $300 million, demonstrating our focus on the efficient allocation of our capital.

Turning now to the year ahead. The outlook for our business is positive, supported by favorable end market dynamics and the benefits of our superior strategy. Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns and no major dislocations in the political or macroeconomic environment, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion, representing another strong year of delivery for CRH.

Turning to Slide 5, where you can see some of our key financial highlights for the fourth quarter and the full year. And I think this slide really speaks to the strength of our performance. We had a strong finish to 2025, but quarter 4 revenues, adjusted EBITDA and margin growth ahead of the full year outturn. Total full year revenues of $37.4 billion were 5% ahead of the prior year, supported by favorable end market demand, disciplined commercial execution and contributions from acquisitions. This enabled us to deliver $7.7 billion of adjusted EBITDA, 11% ahead and a further 100 basis points of margin expansion, demonstrating our relentless focus on continuous performance improvement across our business.

All of this translated into further growth in our diluted earnings per share, up 3% compared to 2024 or 8% ahead when excluding one-off gains on divestitures in the prior year. I am pleased to report another year of strong cash generation, delivering $5 billion of adjusted free cash flow, 18% ahead of the prior year and demonstrating the quality of our earnings and continued focus on cash conversion.

Next to Slide 6, where you can see the consistency of our financial delivery over time. As I mentioned earlier, 2025 represented our 12th consecutive year of margin expansion, representing an average annual increase of approximately 100 basis points since 2013. You can also see that in addition to growing our top line, we have delivered 14% compound annual growth in adjusted EBITDA and 18% in diluted earnings per share. Overall, our track record across each of these financial metrics really demonstrates the strength of our connected portfolio of businesses and our ability to deliver consistent long-term performance improvement.

When you look at our performance through the lens of total shareholder return, the story is just as compelling. As you can see here on Slide 7, we have significantly outperformed the S&P 500 Index over the last 1, 10 and 55 years with compound annual TSOs of 36.8% to 18.8% and 16.3%, respectively. Our consistent outperformance compared to the broader market highlights our position as a leading compounder of capital and demonstrates why CRH continues to be such a powerful platform for long-term growth and shareholder value creation.

Turning now to Slide 8. And here, you can see the growth algorithm, which we presented during our Investor Day last September, cultivated and refined over 50 years. This is what drives our performance year after year. As the leading infrastructure play in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on 3 large and growing megatrends, transportation, water and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant growth and value creation for our business going forward.

Next, the CRH winning way, core to who we are deeply embedded in our culture and the engine behind everything we do. Through our winning way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus. We drive the leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. We are responsible stewards for our shareholder capital, and we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions in high-growth markets.

All of this is supported by 4 key enablers: customer centricity, empower teams, unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of businesses. Our winning way is what really sets CRH apart. It is the force multiplier that enables us to fully capitalize on growing infrastructure mega trends.

In summary, our growth algorithm represents a powerful combination, which has delivered over the last decade. And as you can see on Slide 9, it underpins our medium-term financial targets, which we presented during our recent Investor Day. We expect to deliver average annual revenue growth of between 7% and 9%, supported by our leading positions in high-growth markets, alignment with growing megatrends as well as contributions from growth CapEx investments and further M&A.

Building on our strong track record of 12 consecutive years of margin expansion, we are targeting further margin improvement across our business, with an adjusted EBITDA margin target of 22% to 24% by 2030. We also continue to focus on strong cash generation. And over the next 5 years, we expect to deliver average annual adjusted free cash flow conversion of over 100%, underpinning approximately $40 billion of financial capacity to invest for future growth and deliver further returns to our shareholders.

Overall, these targets reflect the scale of our ambition to 2030 and our 2025 performance provides us with good momentum as we embark on that journey. Now at this point, I will ask Randy to take you through the performance for each of our businesses.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. Turning to Slide 11 and beginning with Americas Materials Solutions, which delivered a strong Q4 and full year performance against record prior year comparatives. Total full year revenues and adjusted EBITDA were 5% and 7% ahead, driven by good pricing momentum, operational efficiencies and contributions from acquisitions. Aggregates pricing increased by 4% or 6% on a mix-adjusted basis. Cement pricing increased by 1%, reflecting regional variances across our operating footprint and supporting another year of margin expansion.

Despite some challenging weather conditions impacting activity levels, revenues in our Roads business were 4% ahead, driven by improved pricing and contributions from acquisitions. In terms of the demand environment, I'm pleased to report that the underlying backdrop remains positive, supported by our strategic alignment with 3 growing infrastructure megatrends. Transportation infrastructure continues to be supported by strong state and federal funding.

Approximately half of highway funds in the IIJA have been deployed to date, highlighting the significant runway we still have ahead of us. We also continue to benefit from investment in the whole area of water infrastructure. Over 85% of roads require water management systems, and our connected portfolio enables us to self-supply our own aggregates and cement to meet growing demand for our water infrastructure products as well as provide more value to our customers.

Reindustrialization activity also continues to be strong, particularly in large-scale manufacturing and data center projects. I'm also pleased to see further margin expansion, up 30 basis points on the prior year to 23.5%, demonstrating strong cost discipline and operational efficiency across our business. So overall, a robust performance for our Americas Materials Solutions business. And as we look ahead, I'm encouraged by the positive momentum and our bidding activity and backlogs, which are ahead of the prior year.

Next to Americas Building Solutions on Slide 12, where our business delivered further profit growth and margin expansion in the fourth quarter and for the year as a whole, driven by good underlying demand, strong commercial management, operational efficiencies and contributions from acquisitions. Our Building and Infrastructure Solutions business continues to perform well, supported by strong data center demand and continued investment in water, energy and communications infrastructure.

In our Outdoor Living business, we continue to experience resilient underlying demand in residential repair and remodel activity. Revenues were in line with the prior year, a good performance in the context of subdued activity in the new-build residential segment and unfavorable weather in certain markets.

For Americas Building Solutions overall, total revenue growth of 1% translated into a 6% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 100 basis points of margin expansion, supported by ongoing business improvement and asset optimization initiatives.

Moving to International Solutions on Slide 13, where our business delivered strong profit growth and further margin expansion in both the fourth quarter and the full year, driven by good pricing momentum, contributions from acquisitions and disciplined cost control. On top of an 8% increase in revenue, we delivered a 23% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 200 basis points of margin expansion.

In Western Europe, solid infrastructure and reindustrialization demand offset subdued residential activity levels. While in Central and Eastern Europe, we experienced positive demand across our key end markets and some early signs of recovery in new-build residential activity. In Australia, our business continues to perform very well, benefiting from good underlying demand operational improvements and synergy delivery from recent acquisitions.

Overall, we're pleased with our performance in 2025 with record revenue, adjusted EBITDA and margin across each of our businesses, reflecting our leading performance mindset and culture of continuous improvement.

At this point, I'll hand you over to Nancy to take you through our financial performance and capital allocation activities in further detail.

Thank you, Randy. Turning to Slide 15 and our financial strength and optionality. We have a robust balance sheet with a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.8x at year-end, reflecting strong cash generation and a relentless focus on maintaining our financial discipline. We generated $5 billion of adjusted free cash flow in 2025, a strong performance representing a conversion ratio of 130% of net income and consistent with our 2030 financial targets.

The strength of our balance sheet and cash generation capabilities underpins a significant financial capacity we expect to have at our disposal over the next 5 years, approximately $40 billion to invest for future growth and deliver shareholder returns, consistent with our long track record of value creation and reinforcing our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry.

Turning to Slide 16. You can see a summary of our capital allocation activities in 2025. First, to M&A, where we invested $4.1 billion on 38 value-accretive acquisitions, further strengthening our connected portfolio and leading positions in high-growth markets. We're pleased to report that the integration of Eco Material, our largest acquisition in 2025 and is progressing well with some good early wins on commercial, operational and logistical synergies to enhance performance and create long-term value for our shareholders.

In fact, over the last 3 years, we have completed 100 acquisitions, demonstrating the benefits of our unmatched scale and connected portfolio, and we have a strong pipeline of further opportunities in front of us, supported by our proven growth capabilities and the fragmented nature of our industry. We also invested $1.7 billion 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 and optimize our energy usage, all of which will drive long-term shareholder value.

We continue to deliver significant accretive returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. In 2025, we returned $1 billion in dividends, 6% ahead of the prior year on a per share basis and representing an increase of over 60% since 2019. We have a proud track record of delivering 42 consecutive years of dividend growth and stability and are committed to our policy of consistent long-term dividend growth. Through our ongoing share buyback program, we also repurchased $1.2 billion of shares in 2025. And today, we are commencing a further quarterly tranche of $300 million to be completed no later than April 28.

Since the inception of our buyback program in 2018, we have returned approximately $10 billion to shareholders, representing 23% of our shares in issue at an average price of $50 per share. Overall, we deployed $8 billion to growth investments and shareholder returns in 2025, demonstrating our focus on the efficient allocation of capital to maximize shareholder value.

Randy and I will take you through our growth investments in further detail. First, to M&A on Slide 17, where we have a proven track record of value creation over many years enabled by our unmatched scale, connected portfolio and empowered teams. 2025 was an active year from an M&A perspective with $4.1 billion invested in a total of 38 acquisitions across our 4 strategic growth platforms of aggregates, cementitious, roads and water.

From a materials perspective, we added 1 billion tons of high-quality aggregate reserves to our business, further strengthening our market-leading minerals reserve position. From an annual production standpoint, we added 8 million tons of aggregates, 2 million tons of asphalt and 10 million tons of cementitious materials.

On Slide 18, you can see some of the acquisitions we completed, combining strong local brands with our global scale to build out our connected portfolio across our 4 growth platforms. For example, in December, we acquired North American Aggregates, a leading supplier of aggregate serving New York and New Jersey. This strategic acquisition secures valuable aggregate reserves and enhances our ability to meet the long-term needs of our customers in the region.

In addition to our acquisition of Eco Material, which Nancy mentioned, is progressing well, we continue to develop our cementitious platform with the acquisition of Rock Solid Materials in Louisiana and Independent Cement in Australia. In our Roads business, we acquired Tally Construction, a connected provider of asphalt paving and construction services in greater Chattanooga, Tennessee as well as parts of Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. This acquisition is a strong strategic fit with our existing offering and will enhance our ability to serve our customers in these markets.

In Water, our strategic investment in VODA AI expands our capabilities in water asset management with AI technology. This platform helps utilities manage aging water infrastructure by providing AI-driven predictive analytics to assess pipe condition and risk across transmission, distribution and collection systems. So a busy year on the acquisition front as we continue to develop our connected portfolio in attractive high-growth markets.

Turning to Slide 19. We're also continuing to invest in our existing business. As you can see on the left-hand side of this slide, we have deliberately stepped up investment in growth CapEx in recent years, leveraging our footprint, scale and connected portfolio to fully capture the high-returning low-risk opportunities that we've identified across our markets. In 2025, we invested $1.7 billion in growth CapEx. These investments are carefully targeted to expand production capacity in high-growth markets while also driving greater operational efficiency through automation and advanced technologies that reduce cost and enhance performance.

We're also making investments that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to optimize our energy consumption as well as increasing our circularity and sustainability performance. On Slide 20, you can see some examples of growth CapEx investments that we're making. At our Roseville Quarry in Ohio, we're investing approximately $75 million in a new quarry and processing plant to access over 100 million tons of premium aggregate reserves. The investment will strengthen our connected portfolio in the region, reduce production costs and enhance our ability to serve customers in the high-growth Columbus market.

In Marisa, Illinois, we're building a new grinding and blending facility, which will increase production capacity for supplemental cementitious materials and enable us to serve customers in new markets. We also recently completed the construction of a $100 million precast pipe and box culvert plant just outside Austin, Texas, which will enable us to meet growing demand for our water infrastructure products. The location is very attractive from a market growth perspective and will also enable us to self-supply our own aggregates and cement from our existing operations in the area.

These are just a few examples of how we're deploying capital efficiently, high-returning, low-risk investments that expand our production capabilities, support margin growth and enhance long-term shareholder value.

Thanks, Randy, another active year on the investment front, and I'm encouraged by the strong pipeline of opportunities we see in front of us. Let me now take a moment to outline how we are strategically positioned for the future. On Slide 22, you can really get a sense of the unmatched scale and connected portfolio of our business across North America, our largest market. Scale matters in our industry and when combined with the connected nature of our local networks, it provides us with commercial, operational and strategic advantages that set us apart and enable us to deliver superior performance year after year.

Carefully developed over 5 decades of entrepreneurial leadership, we have strategically and deliberately built out 4 key growth platforms: aggregates, cementitious, roads and water to become the #1 infrastructure play in the region, a position that is almost impossible to replicate today. Aggregates are the foundation of our business. They feed into everything we do from our cementitious business to our roads business to our water infrastructure platform. Approximately 95% of our revenue is connected back to this product.

And with 230 million tonnes of annualized volumes and 20 billion tons of reserves in the ground, our aggregates position in North America is unrivaled.

Turning now to Slide 23. As the #1 infrastructure play in North America or strategic positioning and capabilities across 3 of the most powerful megatrends shaping our future are unmatched. We play a critical role building and maintaining U.S. transportation infrastructure, the largest and most extensive network in the world. Through our connected portfolio, we are the largest payer in the U.S., equal to the next 5 largest players combined.

We have a fully connected customer offering, enabling us not just to provide the aggregates but the mix designs, the asphalt and the paving capabilities, value-added products and the services that are essential to a finished road. This enables us to capture profit in each step of the chain and maximize value for our shareholders. Transportation infrastructure remains one of the most recurring and predictable revenue streams for our business, underpinned by a robust and sustained public funding backdrop at both the state and federal level.

One of the most urgent challenges we face today is the whole area of water. Across the U.S., much of the existing motor infrastructure is outdated and no longer fit for purpose, with roughly 1/3 of the U.S. water infrastructure network more than 50 years old, the need to update the systems that collect, transport and treat water is critical. As a leading provider of water infrastructure in the U.S., our national footprint and deep expertise gives us a significant advantage as investment in this area accelerates.

Over 80% of the products we produce in our water business consume aggregates and cementitious materials. And since over 85% of roads require water management systems, the strength of our water platform reinforces the benefits of our connected portfolio and shared customer base. We also continue to benefit from a powerful wave of reindustrialization activity. AI is fueling rapid expansion of data centers. And with 85% of all U.S. data centers within 25 miles in one of our locations, we are well positioned to benefit.

In addition to being very materials intensive, these highly specified facilities require state-of-the-art water, energy and communications infrastructure. which fits very well with how we have strategically positioned our business and our customer offering. Taken together, these 3 megatrends represent one of the most compelling growth opportunities in decades, with our unmatched scale and connected portfolio across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize.

I will now ask Randy to briefly take you through some examples of how we are driving value at scale and leveraging the power of our connected portfolio.

First, an example from our Roads business on Slide 24, the Mountain View corridor in Northern Utah, where we participated in the most recent phase of this 35-mile infrastructure project. Through our fully connected offering, we were able to supply 1 million tons of aggregates tons of asphalt as well as the paving services and the water infrastructure systems that were needed. By leveraging the benefits of our connected portfolio and unmatched scale, we were able to increase asset utilization reduce capital intensity and generate higher profits, cash and returns for our shareholders.

On Slide 25, you can also see how we drive value at scale in reindustrialization. We are currently involved in over 100 data center projects across the U.S. where typically construction accounts for up to 15% of the total project cost. Speed and quality are critical for these customers. And through our unmatched scale and connected portfolio, we're uniquely positioned to capture a higher share of wallet on these projects. We're able to supply not just essential materials, but state-of-the-art water, energy and communications infrastructure for these highly specified facilities as well as helping to develop all the surrounding infrastructure that's required, particularly road infrastructure.

These are just 2 examples of our strategy in action, enabling us to maximize value for our customers while also generating higher growth, profits and cash for shareholders.

Thanks, Randy. Now before I discuss our financial expectations for the year ahead, let me share our thoughts on the outlook across our markets. First, to transportation, where the demand backdrop is robust, supported by the continued rollout of federal funding through the IIJA, where approximately 50% of highway funds are yet to be deployed. State level funding is also strong with 2026 DOT budgets up 6% on the prior year.

In fact, 2026 is expected to be a record year for investment in transportation infrastructure, which bodes well for our business given our net scale and market-leading position. We are also encouraged by the progress being made in Congress regarding a multiyear reauthorization of highway funding with continued bipartisan support for increased infrastructure investment in the years ahead. In our international business, we expect robust demand in infrastructure to continue, supported by significant investments from government and EU funding programs.

We also see robust demand for water infrastructure with high single-digit growth projected in the areas of water quality and flow control for 2026. In reindustrialization, we expect continued strong demand for large-scale manufacturing and data center investment in both the U.S. and our international markets. And with the benefits of our unmatched scale and connected customer offering, we are very well positioned to benefit in this area going forward.

In the residential sector, we expect repair and remodel demand in the U.S. to remain resilient while new build activity remains subdued as a result of ongoing affordability challenges. As we have said in the past, this is not a demand issue, and we believe the long-term fundamentals in this market remain very attractive, supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of under build.

In summary, the overall trend is positive for our business with our strategic focus on growing infrastructure megatrends and the benefits of the CRH winning way, leaving us uniquely positioned to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities that lie ahead.

Turning now to Slide 28. And against that backdrop, here we have set out our financial guidance for 2026. Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns and no major dislocations in the political or macroeconomic environment, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion, net income between $3.9 billion and $4.1 billion and diluted earnings per share between $5.60 and $6.05, representing another strong year of delivery for CRH.

It's still very early in the construction season, but we feel good about 2026, and we will, of course, update you on our expectations as the year unfolds.

So that concludes our prepared remarks today. I will now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.

[Operator Instructions]

We'll take our first question from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.

My question is with -- regarding the guidance, if you can give us further color on the guidance and the underlying assumptions that you have in terms of how we should see the top line growth and the EBITDA growth on the different divisions. And if the guidance includes this recent divestment that did as well?

Adrian. Good to hear from you, Jim here. Maybe I'll kick it off and just kind of set out the broad background to the guidance of '26. And I might ask Randy then to comment on the specifics on volume and price and then maybe Nancy might write it off -- just wrap it up in terms of the puts and takes from a financial perspective.

But overall, firstly, listen, after stepping off a really strong 2024, we got good momentum in Q4, a good momentum in 2025, a record year, and that's good momentum into '26. From a U.S. perspective, maybe first, really positive backdrop into 2026. And the key growth areas for us are really around transportation, water and reindustrialization. And when I say transportation, for us, that's really our Road business. And as I said, it's really our most predictable and recurring revenue stream.

We're sitting here at the start of the year. This is the one that we have most visibility on. And it really is, it comes about from our coast-to-coast presence in 43 states. And typically, over a full year, we do over 1,000 jobs per annum, somewhere between 9 to 12 weeks average sized job. And this is a business where scale matters, right? And really, we get the benefit of our connected portfolio, and that what drives the consistent performance on the road business.

From a funding perspective, 50% of the IIJA funds are yet to hit the street, and the state budgets are up 6% as we head into 2026 as well. So really positive backdrop from our roads business heading into 2026. Next, on reindustrialization. And for us, that's data centers. And again, for us, I think we really see the benefit of our connected portfolio here. If you think about it, a lot of the very first construction of those sites is around the energy, the water and the communications, infrastructure, that critical services infrastructure that goes into those sites.

We then support that with our aggregates, our concrete and finally, our asphalt as well in terms of paving the road access. So we really kind of get above good share of wallet on those jobs, and the outlook is very good. We're active on over 100 data sites. I think if you look at the -- in total across the U.S., there's a CRH facility within 85% of all data sites within 25 miles. So we're busy on data sites.

Maybe turning next to water. Again, a good outlook, strong funding backdrop, still a lot of non-spend funds coming out of the IIJA. And when you look at the aging network of water infrastructure cost to U.S., really a critical investment in terms of going forward. From a res perspective, we're not -- our kind of base case for '26 is that we're not really assuming any help. It remains very subdued, and that's an affordability, not a demand issue with the 30-year fixed mortgage, still a shade over 6%. It's just too high. So as I said, we're not expecting any benefit from new build res in 2026.

Turning now maybe to international. From a Europe perspective, first, a very strong infrastructure base and funding level across our business. And that's both at an EU funding level, but also at an individual state funding level as well. We're seeing positive activity in reindustrialization across Europe, and we continue to see residential recovery. I mean Europe is more advanced on that interest rate cut cycle. They've had a 200 basis point cut in the last 12 months, and we're beginning to see that come to fruition across our European footprint.

And maybe finally, in terms of Australia, a really good performance in 2025. And as we head into 2026, I think the timing is good in terms of a continued recovery of the residential cycle in Australia. Maybe, Randy, will you pick up what that means in terms of volume and prices?

Yes. Maybe just to reflect real quickly on how we finished 2025. So I'd say a really, really solid performance, ag volumes up 4% year-over-year and pricing up 6% on a mix-adjusted basis. So good work by the teams in the markets that we serve and actually within cement as well, volume and price plus 1%. And to get to reflect back on cement, at least look back to 2024, coming off a very strong year where pricing was up 8%.

So the teams have done a nice job, really reflects more so our footprint in terms of our operating locations. But Jim, I think, called out the underlying drivers for 2026. I've said this before, our future is really predicted a lot by our backlogs gives us kind of a 6- to 9-month view and bidding activity is strong. We're winning our share of business, and so it's positive to see and supportive of what our expectations are for this next year.

In the U.S., we're looking at ag volumes up low single digits, supported by mid-single-digit pricing. And then cement as well, low single-digit volumes and pricing in low single digits and again, building off a good 2025, but it's reflective of really the underlying investment that's happening both in the infrastructure space and data centers in particular. A number of the same macro drivers impacting us in our international business again, EU support for underlying investment in infrastructure and nonres activity.

And so our expectations for cement in the international business is volume up low single digits and pricing up low to mid-single digits. We're still operating in an inflationary environment, labor, raw material subcontract all continue to increase. So it really focuses the eye and the attention on our need for pricing momentum. So the expectation as we look at it for the full year is another year of margin progression.

To bring it all together from a financial perspective and what's encompassed in our guidance for 2026 is just reflecting on a very active year of M&A in 2025, where we spent $4.1 billion on 38 deals A reminder, Eco is the largest of those that we completed last September. And as we've said previously, we expect about $200 million of net incremental EBITDA in 2026 from those acquisitions, and that's really unchanged from our previous guidance. The way to think about it is the contribution from those recently closed acquisitions is really offset by the recent -- or the divestment we've announced of our Construction Accessories business, which we expect to close later this year.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America.

I would just love to get your view on the prospects of a new multiyear highway bill in 2006. And really, the time line of when you're thinking this could get done if we get a CR, a bridge, how do you think that impacts your customers, the DOTs? Do you see any shifts in types of projects and letting activity given your big position, obviously, with roads and your comments that 50% of the funds have not yet been deployed from the prior IIJA.

Mike, yes, maybe first time I give a bit of context, as said at the context and then ask Randy maybe just update where exactly we see it right now in Washington. Overall, as I said, we're in a really positive from an infrastructure perspective. And we see it in the funding levels. And as Randy just mentioned, we see it in our bidding activity, and we see it in our backlogs as we head into 2026 and the season.

Now if you take 2026, an example, right, the federal highway funding for this year is at all-time record levels. And you've probably seen the very recently approved appropriation bills have set aside $75 billion for highways alone in 2026. Now also the IIJA dollars have continued to flow on but over 50% of the highway funds as I said, yet to hit the street. So we're very confident that, that will continue to support continued investment well beyond the current IIJA's expiry later this year. And with that level of funding, again, given the scale of our road business, we really are the biggest beneficiary of that funding.

Yes. I guess, and just in terms of where we think -- see things playing out for a new infrastructure bill, I think early signals are positive. We're encouraged by the conversations that are happening both in the House and the Senate, we have Chairman, Graves, of the House T&I Committee and Chairwoman [indiscernible] from the center -- the Senate EPW committee. They're working on their individual pieces of legislation in and around the surface transportation bill.

I think you couple that with a commitment from Transportation Secretary, Duffy. He's certainly a very strong advocate for a multiyear highway bill that's, I'd say, more focused on core infrastructure. So you have 3, obviously, core constituents aligned and around the underlying need. And by the way, this has always been and continues to be a bipartisan issue. So it's great to see the positive momentum behind those conversations we would expect. We'll see the first insights into those legislation come middle part of this year.

To your question or the comment around what if there's a continuing resolution and we get a 1-year extension. I think as Jim said, we're coming off a record level of funding. In addition to that, you have the tail, the IIJA funding that would yet to be deployed. And so net-net, we would see a positive increase in terms of underlying investment for '26 and '27. Unfortunately, we've been there before. We've experienced that. And what that actually means in practicality is you see more dollars allocated to R&M activities, which actually plays to our sweet spot.

So -- and that's really a focus on the federal piece. You got the states who have been very active, both at the state -- individual state level and the municipality level, 6% increase in funding on the DOTs for 2026. So in totality, we're going to see a continued advancement in the total dollar spend in infrastructure. So good conversations across the aisle, broad support underlying need. I think everybody recognizes that. So we'll stay engaged over the months ahead, but look forward to a positive outcome.

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

It's just one really in terms of the International Solutions business. And just how strong the growth was in 2025? And in particular, it would be really helpful if you could go into a little bit more detail around the building blocks to that significant margin increase year-over-year. It would be very helpful.

Yes. Sure, Shane. Yes, really, a very strong performance on the International division in 2025, with revenue up 8%, EBITDA up 23% and margin expansion of 200 basis points. In addition to kind of the core financial performance, there was actually some really good portfolio optimization work undertaken during the year in the International division. When I look at it in terms of international, I always think of the kind of 3 areas for me.

Firstly, we've had another really strong performance in the year from our Eastern European business. And that really reflects our leading position in this region. And it's really what's driving that is a very strong underpin of infrastructural funding, mainly coming from the EU infrastructure fund. Good reindustrialization activity. And as I mentioned earlier, we're beginning to see the signs on the back of the interest rate cuts some early signs of recovery in residential also.

Moving to Western Europe. Again, a very good performance in 2025, and that was underpinned by strong infrastructure generally across Western Europe. I'd call out maybe a strong performance in Ireland, in the Nordics and Spain and maybe more muted in terms of France and the U.K. in 2025. Australia had a really strong year and really reflect in our first full year, our first 12 months of Adbri a great start, right? And what's driving that is really more synergies than we would have originally anticipated and earlier delivery on those synergies.

Also, Australia, as I said earlier, has benefited from a recovery on the residential cycle also. Now looking into '26, really good momentum across the International division heading into 2026. We're expecting another strong year of growth from Eastern Europe. We're seeing signs of recovery in France and in U.K. on the residential market. We see in terms of the permits. We see it in terms of the starts, which is encouraging heading into '26.

And we're looking for another year of continued growth in Australia on the back of that rail cycle improving. Overall, from a pricing perspective, across our aggregates and cement position, we're looking for a good year in terms of pricing across the international business, and that would be our ninth consecutive year of good pricing across the European Cement business. So overall, very positive about the international outlook into '26 and looking forward to another year of progress.

Your next question comes from the line of Angel Castillo with Morgan Stanley.

Jim and Nancy, congrats on the strong quarter here. Just wanted to ask about 2 assets, I guess, in fact in your fiscal year '26 guide. First, on Eco Materials. Can you just give us a little bit more color on the progress of that integration? It seems like from the prepared remarks, it sounds like there's some early wins and strong operational performance here that could be perhaps coming in better than maybe it was expected.

So just curious as you think about that contribution of $200 million from acquisitions, whether there's maybe some upside risk to that? And then just second, just on the cost inflation, if you could kind of outline a little bit more what your cost assumptions are in terms of the key buckets for 2026. And then just as you think about mitigation or cost control initiatives, whether there's something here that might represent kind of upside, downside risks to the debt.

Yes. Thanks, Angel. This is Randy here. I'll take the questions in around Eco. Yes, we're 5 months in, in terms of Eco being part of CRH. I guess I'd first say certainly a very highly complementary business to our existing cement footprint across North America. I think it really strengthens our position as being a leading cementitious player in North America.

If you look at the combined now productive capacity between our cement business and Eco, around 25 million tons. In addition to that, there's a broad network that was very complementary to our existing Ash Grove terminal and rail network. We now have over 125 separate locations, whether source locations, production facilities, terminals, really this national coverage now from a logistical standpoint. And I'd say the other thing that has been -- certainly continues to be impressive is the innovation capabilities that Eco has.

I mean I would call them a market maker of scale in and around the cementitious space, SEMs in particular. They have long-term supply agreements of high-quality SCMs. For us, it was an obvious place to go in terms of accelerating our cementitious strategy. SCMS, in particular, is the fastest-growing segment of cementitious growing at twice the rate by 2050 versus traditional cement. So a great fit overall.

I'd say the early days. The integration is going well, super team, a very strong cultural alignment. I think one of the things that stands out that they've done well and enhanced our position as well as the value of those deep local relationships. And it's something that we value across our network. They certainly have as well. And I think that gives long-term surety in regards to underlying supply and engagement with the customers.

In regards to the opportunities, the synergies, I would bucket them obviously in probably 2 areas from a commercial standpoint, a number of cross-selling opportunities for new and existing customers, whether that's from our traditional Ash Grove Cement business or it is with Eco. So it's opened up new markets, new platforms for us, which is encouraging. That's moving faster than anticipated. And obviously, the ability to self-supply SCM was a critical element across our network.

We consume a significant amount of cementitious products within our Materials Solutions business within our Infrastructure business and Outdoor Living. So we're capitalizing on those opportunities. And then, I guess, from an operational standpoint, 2 things. One, maximizing the logistics capabilities, the railcars, driving efficiency there, the terminal network really being able to lay out a strong network to serve our customers.

And then I say, from an operational standpoint, we have a global technical services team working in conjunction with the Eco team really driving a high level of operational performance and improvement as we would have seen at Ash Grove or with the Hunter acquisition in Texas. So combined, I think we're off to a tremendous start really making good inroads in terms of the underlying market. I think there's a tremendous amount of value yet to go -- get in and around both for the business and for and ultimately for our shareholders.

Yes. And maybe on the second part of it, just in terms of the cost inflation, Angel, we're continuing to see inflation across labor, across raw materials, bolt-on services and maintenance. And is that cost inflation is really driving our pricing for 2026. And that pricing together with continued kind of relentless performance improvement programs that we have across the business is really what's driving our expectation of another year of margin progression in 2026 to be our 13th consecutive year of margin increase.

Our next question comes from the line of Keith Hughes with Truist.

My question is in American Building Solutions. For the year, there was a nice increase in EBITDA, even though we were organically in a weak market [indiscernible] residential. I just could tell me what worked in the year? And what's sort of the outlook within the American Building Solutions for 2026?

Keith, good to hear you. In terms of the -- what's in terms of outlook, first in terms of 2025, the American Building Solutions is made up of our Infrastructure business and also our Outdoor Living business. Obviously, Outdoor Living, more exposed on the residential, primarily, the majority of it is on the repair remodel, I would say it was a resilient performance in 2025.

The strong performance really came from the Infrastructure business. And that Infrastructure business, I mentioned it earlier in terms of where it plays, but particularly if you think in terms of reindustrialization it's all the kind of subterranean concrete products that are going in around energy, around water, around communications into those large data center facilities, but also the big chip plants as well on the complex manufacturing reshoring projects what we're seeing at the moment.

So that activity, a strong performance in 2025, together with, I would say, a very good focus in terms of optimization of both businesses early in the year, right? We took a lot of optimization and performance initiatives in that division in early 2025, and that really came through in terms of the EBITDA and margin expansion for the year. So I think good performance in '25 and a good outlook, again, given the backdrop primarily on the reindustrialization side in 2026.

Your next question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

I guess if we could start by just talking about M&A and what you're seeing in the way of change in the environment in 2026. And then with such an active acquisition program, as you've been conducting, can you just talk about the synergy realization experience and how that's progressing?

Yes, absolutely, David. Listen, a good year, obviously, in terms of M&A activity, we did 38 deals, $4.1 billion, of which the largest was Eco Material, which closed in September. So and that was on the back active of a very strong year in 2025 as well, '24 rather, when we did 40 deals. So I think we're seeing good levels of activity across the M&A pipeline. As we're into '26 at this stage, we have good optionality in terms of where we deploy capital in 2026.

I think in terms of synergy side of it, again, it comes back to -- a lot of it comes back to the nature of our strategy and our portfolio, that connected portfolio, which enables us to maybe identify synergies that maybe other parties cannot do in terms of transactions. But then crucially, given the kind of competence that we have. I mean there's one thing doing 38 deals. It's nothing being able to integrate them at pace and really secure kind of early delivery on the synergies from that perspective.

And that's just a core competency of what we do. There's a very detailed and playbook to support that, as you can imagine. But I do think what's key to us and strategically is the connected nature of the portfolio.

And we have time for one more question. The last question is going to come from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.

In your Investor Day in September, CRH and as you noted in the call earlier today outlined 3 megatrends driving growth, transportation, water infrastructure and U.S. reindustrialization. How much of a -- I guess this backdrop, these megatrends and the things that you've talked about already today, how much of a differentiator is your connected portfolio that you spent a lot of time talking about when it comes to your M&A pipeline and the optionality you have for growth?

Thanks, Kathryn. And maybe building a bit on the last question from David as well on that point. It's a really good question, right? It's not just about the M&A pipeline, but it really is at the core of our performance agenda as well, right, and in terms of our leading performance. And it actually strikes right to the core of who we are, right, and strike right to the core of our strategy. And maybe firstly, from an M&A perspective, right?

If you consider the fact that the scale of our business and the connected nature of the portfolio, over 4,000 locations across the business over 2000 in North America. And it's really that scale and the connected nature of the portfolio really gives us that optionality of where to deploy capital, right? Now we said in the Investor Day, we're deploying it across 4 growth platforms, across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water.

Now if you consider the year just come by 38 deals in 2025, 40, as I said, in 2024. And in fact, over 100 deals in the last 3 years. The vast majority of those deals are getting sourced locally, and they're being sourced through the fostering of local relationships, often built up over decades. And that kind of local relationship in a lot of instances, gives us a really a lot of exclusive looks on deals and often makes us really the acquirer of choice.

Now as I said to David, just on the last question. It's not just about the deals, really, it's about that ability to integrate them at scale. And I think that's a real core competency we have, right? As we look into 2026, the pipeline is good. And we mentioned at the Investor Day that you reference that over the next 5 years, we're going to have $40 billion of financial capacity to deploy and we expect to deploy up to 70% of that on the growth side of the equation. So between M&A and between our growth CapEx.

Now we are really focused on deploying that capital into higher-growth markets and across those 4 connected portfolios. However, we will remain disciplined and really value focused on the deployment of that capital. But I think what's crucial to it is that it's the connected nature of the portfolio gives us the optionality where we deploy that capital across which markets, i.e., growth markets and then across the platforms. And maybe the second part of it, as I said, is not just about M&A, it's really about performance, right?

And it's really core -- that connected portfolio is really core to how we're able to deliver quarter after quarter, year after year in terms of performance. Firstly, it enables us simply to offer a more complete customer offering, which really maximizes the growth and the value creation. And we talked earlier about the range of connected products that we're supplying into the data centers, which ultimately enables us to win a higher share of wallet. Now if you look at the Roads business, and I think we called it out in the Investor Day, the connected portfolio is really essential to that business, and it brings the predictability, the recurring nature of it, the really high cash yielding and high returning aspects of that business.

And put simply, it enables us to turn $1 in terms of supplying a ton of bags into $6 or 6x more profitable by supplying a more connected portfolio. So that connected nature of the portfolio really enables greater visibility and also really helps in terms of the production and planning efficiencies. So a good question. It's at the core of what we do from an M&A perspective, but crucially as well as what drives that quarter-after-quarter consistency resilience and predictability in the performance of the business.

Okay. Well, thank you all for your attention. And as always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations team. We look forward to talking to you all again in April when we will report our first quarter results. Thank you. Have a good and safe day.

Thank you. Your conference call has now ended. You may disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the CRH Third Quarter 2025 Results Presentation. My name is Christa, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions] 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 Q3 2025 results presentation and conference call. Joining me on the call is Nancy Buese, our CFO; Randy Lake, our COO; and Tom Holmes, Head of Investor Relations. Before we get started, I'll hand over to Tom for some brief opening remarks.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to Slide 2 shown here on the screen. During our presentation, we'll 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 the 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 you back to Jim, Nancy and Randy.

Thanks, Tom. We'll now take you through a brief presentation of our results for the third quarter of the year, highlighting the key drivers of our performance, our recent capital allocation activities, as well as our expectations for the year as a whole. We will also share our thoughts on some of the trends we are seeing across our markets as we look ahead to 2026.

So at the outset, on Slide 4, let me take you through some of the key messages from our results. We are pleased to report a record third quarter performance and raised the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2025, reflecting the continued execution of our strategy, our unmatched scale and connected portfolio of businesses.

Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns and no major dislocations in the political or macroeconomic environment, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $7.6 billion and $7.7 billion representing 10% growth at the midpoint and another record year for CRH. Supported by our growth algorithm and the CRH Winning way, we delivered double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth in Q3 and reflecting our leading performance mindset. We have also been busy investing for future growth and value creation across our four connected platforms of aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. Our ability to deploy capital in high-growth markets, integrated scale and deliver unique synergies to our connected portfolio is a real differentiator for our business.

In the year-to-date, we have invested $3.5 billion in 27 value-accretive acquisitions. And we have a strong pipeline of further growth opportunities in front of us, supported by our proven growth capabilities. Looking ahead to 2026 and based on the visibility we have across our key markets, the outlook for our business is positive. And I will take you through that in more detail later in the presentation.

Turning now to Slide 5 and our financial highlights for the third quarter. A record performance with revenues, adjusted EBITDA margin and diluted EPS, all well ahead of the prior year period. Total revenues of $11.1 billion represents a 5% increase over the prior year, supported by positive underlying demand, continued pricing momentum and contributions from acquisitions. This enabled us to deliver $2.7 billion of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, a record for CRH and a 10% increase over the prior year.

I'm also pleased to report a further 100 basis points of margin expansion in the quarter, demonstrating our relentless focus on performance across our business. All of this translated into further growth in our diluted earnings per share, up 12% year-on-year.

So what is driving the consistency of our financial delivery outlined here on Slide 6 is our growth algorithm, which we presented during our Investor Day in September. As the leading infrastructure play in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on 3 large and growing mega trends. transportation, water and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant above-market growth and value creation for our business going forward.

Next, the CRH winning way core to who we are deeply embedded in our culture and the engine behind everything we do. Through our winning way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus. We drive leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. We are responsible stewards of our shareholders' capital. Every dollar we deploy is rigorously assessed to ensure that it drives maximum long-term value and we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions in high-growth markets.

All of this is supported by four key enablers: customer centricity, empowered teams, unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of businesses. Our winning way is what really sets CRH apart. It is the multiplier that enables us to fully capitalize on growing infrastructure mega trends. It underpins our proven track record of delivering consistent double-digit earnings growth and being the leading compounder of capital in our industry. Now at this point, I will hand you over to Randy to take you through the performance of each of our businesses.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. Turning to Slide 8 and first to Americas Materials Solutions, which delivered a robust performance in the third quarter against a strong prior year comparative. Total revenues and adjusted EBITDA were 6% and 5% ahead driven by good underlying demand, positive pricing momentum and contributions from acquisitions. Aggregates pricing increased by 4% or 6% on a mix-adjusted basis. Cement pricing increased by 1%, reflecting regional variances across our operating footprint and supporting another year of margin expansion.

In our roads business, Q3 revenues were 5% ahead, supported by good levels of activity in transportation infrastructure, which continues to be underpinned by strong state and federal funding. We also continue to see significant growth in reindustrialization, particularly in large-scale manufacturing and data centers. I'm also pleased to see continued strength in our margin at approximately 28% and reflecting strong cost discipline and operational efficiency across our business. So overall, a strong performance for our Americas Materials Solutions business. And as we look ahead to the remainder of the year, I'm encouraged by the positive momentum in our backlogs.

Next to Americas Building Solutions on Slide 9, where our business delivered strong profit growth and further margin expansion driven by favorable underlying demand and good commercial management. We continue to experience robust data center demand [Audio Gap] including the disposal of certain land assets across our operations.

Moving to international Solutions on Slide our business delivered our business deliver strong pricing on ongoing performance improvement onions from acquisitions. On top of a 5% increase in [indiscernible] and 15% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 170 basis points of margin expansion. In Central and Eastern Europe, we experienced positive underlying demand across our key end markets and early signs of recovery in new build residential activity. While in Western Europe, activity levels continue to be supported by infrastructure and nonresidential demand. In Australia, our business is performing well, benefiting from strong demand and synergy realization from recent acquisitions. At this point, I'll hand you over to Nancy to take you through our financial performance and capital allocation activities in further detail.

Thank you, Randy. Turning to Slide 12. And as Jim mentioned earlier, we delivered a record third quarter performance with further growth across our key financial metrics. Q3 adjusted EBITDA of approximately $2.7 billion was 10% above prior year, driven by positive underlying demand, continued pricing momentum and contributions from acquisitions. We also delivered 100 basis points of margin expansion. Keeping us well on track to deliver our 12th consecutive year of margin improvement in 2025, demonstrating our leading performance mindset and the consistency of our financial delivery.

Turning to Slide 13. We and to talk about our capital allocation activities so far in 2025. Starting with M&A, we have invested $3.5 billion on 27 value-accretive acquisitions. Further strengthening our connected portfolio and leading positions in high-growth markets. We've also invested $1.2 billion in growth CapEx through the third quarter. leveraging our size and scale to fully capitalize on low-risk, high-returning investment opportunities that expand our capabilities, support margin growth and enhance long-term shareholder value.

We also continued to deliver significant accretive returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. And Year-to-date, we've returned over $700 million in dividends, and we've also announced that our Board has declared a further quarterly dividend of $0.37 per share, representing an increase of 6% on the prior year. in line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth. Through our ongoing share buyback program, we have also repurchased $1.1 billion of shares so far this year. And today, we are commencing a further quarterly tranche of $300 million.

Since the inception of our buyback program in 2018, we have returned over $9 billion to shareholders, representing 23% of our outstanding shares at an average price of $49 per share. Overall, we have deployed $6.5 billion towards growth investments and shareholder returns so far this year. demonstrating our focus on the efficient allocation of capital to maximize shareholder value.

As we communicated during our recent Investor Day, over the next 5 years, we expect to have approximately $40 billion of financial capacity to invest for future growth and deliver further returns to our shareholders. Consistent with our long-term track record of value creation and reinforcing our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry. I will now hand you back to Jim and Randy to provide some further color on our recent growth investments.

Thanks, Nancy. As you can see here on Slide 15 in North America, our largest market, we have strategically and deliberately built out our 4 key growth platforms to become the #1 infrastructure play in the region. Let me step you through each of these in turn. It all begins at aggregates, a valuable finite resource in the backbone of our business. In fact, approximately 95% of our revenue is connected to aggregates. Aggregates feed into everything we do from our semantics business to our roads business to our water infrastructure platform. Here, our position is unrivaled with 230 million tons of annual production and 20 billion tons of reserves. We own more stone on the ground than anyone else in the industry.

Building on that foundation, we are also a leader in cementitious materials with around 25 million tons of annual production capacity. Together, aggregates and cementitious products are the essential building blocks of modern infrastructure. enabling us to build, maintain and improve the networks that communities and economies rely on every single day.

Through our connected portfolio, we are also the largest road paver in the United States. This is a business supported by recurring revenue and robust public funding. We produced more than 50 million tons of asphalt annually, equivalent to the next 5 largest players combined. And importantly, our paving operations are almost entirely self-supplied by our own high-value aggregates and asphalt.

Finally, we are also the leader in water infrastructure, where we provide customers with engineered systems that collect, protect and transport this vital resource. Our water business has national coverage and over 80% of the products we produce consume aggregates and cementitious materials. And since over 85% of roads require water management systems, the strength of our water platform further reinforces the benefits of our connected portfolio and shared customer base.

Taken together, these four platforms, aggregates, cementitious, roads and water form the foundation of our unique position as the #1 infrastructure play in North America, and we are focused on continuing to invest across these platforms to deliver further growth and value for our shareholders.

Let's take a look at some examples of our recent investments, starting with two bolt-on acquisitions on Slide 16. First, American Industries, a provider of aggregates, asphalt and road paving services in Connecticut. This acquisition increases our aggregates reserves and expands our presence in an attractive market in the Northeast region of the United States. We also acquired Terracon Precast, a newly constructed concrete pipeline with 70,000 tons of annual production capacity in North Carolina. This is highly complementary to our existing water infrastructure business and significantly strengthens our ability to serve customers in [ Rolling and Greensboro ] markets. These are just two examples out of the 26 bolt-on acquisitions that we have completed year-to-date, fully aligned with our strategy to invest across our four connected growth platforms with exposure to growing infrastructure megatrends. Now at this point, I will hand you over to Randy to update you on our recent acquisition of Eco Material Technologies and greater CapEx investments.

Thanks, Jim. First, to our $2.1 billion acquisition of Eco Material, which completed in September. This acquisition strengthens our position as a leading cementitious player in North America with approximately 25 million tons of combined annual production. And I'm pleased to report that early integration is progressing well, and we've already identified significant commercial, operational and logistical opportunities to enhance performance and create long-term value for our shareholders. .

As you can see on the map on the right-hand side of the slide, it's an excellent strategic fit and highly complementary to our existing platform. It creates a unique national distribution network enhances our innovation capabilities and positions us to better serve our enlarged customer base. Overall, we expect to unlock strong future growth and synergy realization with Eco Material under our ownership, representing an exciting opportunity to accelerate our cementitious growth strategy and deliver a tremendous amount of value for our shareholders.

Turning to Slide 18 and some examples of the types of growth CapEx investments that we're making to support future growth in our existing business. First, we recently completed the construction of a precast pipe and box culvert plant just outside of Austin, Texas, which will enable us to meet growing demand for our water infrastructure products. The location is not only very attractive from a market growth perspective, it will also enable us to self-supply our own aggregates and cement from our existing operations in the area. And in Utah, we're modernizing our cement plant in Leamington, which will increase annual production capacity by 240,000 tons to meet strong demand throughout the inland West market. These are just two examples of how we're deploying capital efficiently, low-risk, high-returning investments that are an excellent use of our shareholders' capital.

Thanks, Randy, great examples there of how we are deploying capital in high-growth areas. Finally, to outlook on Slide 20, and I'm pleased to say that we are raising the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2025. Reflecting our continued strong performance and a partial year contribution from the Eco Material acquisition.

Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and no major dislocations in the political or macroeconomic environment, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $7.6 billion and $7.7 billion, a 10% increase at the midpoint. Net income between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion and diluted earnings per share between $5.49 and $5.72.

As Nancy mentioned earlier, we also expect to deliver our 12th consecutive year of margin expansion in 2025, demonstrating the consistency of our delivery and relentless focus on continuous performance improvement. Taking all of this into account represents yet another record year of growth and value creation for CRH.

Now before I hand over to Q&A, and as we look ahead to 2026, I'd like to take a moment to share our thoughts on some of the trends we are seeing across our key infrastructure megatrends in North America.

First, to transportation, where the demand backdrop is robust, supported by the continued rollout of federal funding through the IIJA, approximately 60% of the IIJA funds are yet to be deployed, highlighting the significant runway we still have ahead of us. State level funding is also strong with the 2026 DOT budgets up 6% on the prior year. Through our own match scale and uniquely connected portfolio, we are well positioned to benefit. In fact, if you look at the DOT capital spending authority across our top 10 states, it's expected to increase by 13%.

It is also encouraging to see continued support for increased infrastructure investment. For example, we saw Michigan recently approving $1.85 billion in new transportation funding over the next 4 years. Transportation infrastructure remains one of the most recurring and predictable revenue streams of our business. And as the largest road paver in the United States and the #1 infrastructure play in North America, we are well placed to benefit.

We also expect to see continued investment in the whole area of water infrastructure, a large and growing market for our business with high single-digit growth projected in the areas of water quality and flow control for 2026. In reindustrialization, we expect continued strong demand for large-scale manufacturing and data center investment. With approximately $690 billion of data center projects either announced are under construction. And with each of these projects located within 50 miles of a CRH location, we are very well positioned to benefit in this area going forward.

In the residential sector, we expect repair and remodel demand in the U.S. to remain resilient, while new build activity remains subdued as a result of the ongoing affordability challenges. With the benefit of recent interest rate cuts unlikely to be felt until late 2026 at the earliest.

As we said in the past, this is not a demand issue, and we believe the long-term fundamentals in this market remain very attractive. Supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of underbuilt.

In our international business, we expect robust demand and infrastructure to continue, supported by significant investment from government and EU funding programs. Nonresidential activity to remain stable across our key markets and a continued recovery in the residential sector as a result of lower interest rates. Regarding the pricing environment, we expect positive momentum to continue across our markets, supported by disciplined commercial management as well as the benefits of our connected portfolio.

In summary, the overall trend is positive for our business. with our strategic focus on growing infrastructure megatrends and the benefits of the CRH winning way, leaving us uniquely positioned to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities that lie ahead. So that concludes our prepared remarks today. I will now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Anthony Pettinari with Citi.

Good morning. Thanks for all the detail I'm wondering if you have any further color on expectations for 2026. And maybe specifically, how you're thinking about volume, price and contribution from M&A?

Yes, listen, I might ask Randy to come in a minute just on some of the detail on volume and prices and Nancy maybe just on some of the scope impacts. But overall, the outlook for '26 positive, Anthony, and really the key growth areas we see for ourselves around infrastructure. And for us, that's around transportation and water, but also reindustrialization.

Maybe first on transportation. With roads, still 60% of the IIJA is yet to be spent. And indeed, the local state budgets are also strong into 2026. This kind of strong funding backdrop for us is just really well positioned given our unmatched scale and connected portfolio in our Roads portfolio. And as you know, it's probably our most consistent and recurring revenue streams that we have in CRH, also on the water infrastructure side, right? It's a very strong funding backdrop and that ongoing investment, which is really needed and required to address the aging network aging water network across the U.S.

On reindustrialization into '26, we see data center activity continue to be strong, right? And really for us, given our connected portfolio, it's not just about delivering aggregates on sites. We're often in the very first personal side there, with our energy, our water and our communications subterranean infrastructure going in early, right? So it's a really kind of holistic pull-through of the connected product offering we have.

Maybe just touching on residential for 2026, we think it's going to remain subdued, right? It's not a demand issue, but affordability with a 30-year fixed still at 6.2%. It's still too high, right? And we need continued interest rate cuts before we see any recovery on the U.S. res side. So all kind of assumptions that there's no real benefit for us in 2026. If it is, it's going to be really at the very back end.

And maybe just an international briefly, again, infrastructure is strong, right, both at strong levels of EU and local government funding as well across our state government funding across Europe. Reindustrialization, we kind of see a stable outlook for 2026. And on residential and Europe, slightly different because Europe and the euro are more advanced on interest rate reductions, and we're beginning already to see the benefit of that coming through in terms of a continued recovery in residential. But maybe, Randy, just maybe specific volume and prices.

Yes. Maybe just to build out just a quick comment before I do that, just on maybe an example a couple of projects we're working on. For example, in the northwestern part of the U.S. in and around Boise, working on a chip manufacturing plan and a data center. I think what Jim called out is important. That critical infrastructure that focus on the needs of energy and water management allow us early access on these projects. They're highly specified. Gains us the opportunity then to pull through a variety of other products as part of that connected portfolio, the aggregate, the cement, the readymix and ultimately, the paving around those sites. So in the end, that strategy is certainly delivering higher returns and as we gain larger share of wallet of some of those key customers.

And I guess that is a lead in to say, hey, Q3 was encouraging. Ag and cement volumes up kind of mid- to high single digits coming out of the Q2 that was a little more weather impact. It's so good to see underlying demand coming through. And again, a positive pricing environment. Ag, in particular, up 6% on a mix-adjusted basis. So that's good to see in cement, another year of progress in terms of low single-digit pricing. And as we look forward, we talk about this all the time, the backlog, whether that's for our roads business, the critical infrastructure business. We have good visibility kind of 6 to 9 months out. The bidding environment remains positive. So we're bidding more than we had at this point last year, and our backlogs would reflect an increase in revenues in quantum as we look into next year.

In terms of what that means for an outlook in regards to demand, we were looking at our ag volume in that low single-digit improvement from '25 and mid-single digits in regards to pricing. And cement very similar, again, low single-digit volumes and pricing, another year at advancement there. So it's building off of a good '25, but again, the backlogs would be encouraging in regards to what our expectations are as we get into next year.

Yes. And circling back to the question about the M&A contributions. It has been a really active year for us. 27 deals so far, Eco was the largest, and that was completed in September. So if you think about the contributions from all of these M&As thus far in 2025, I would roughly estimate about $200 million of EBITDA, net incremental in 2026. And we'll talk a lot more about 2026 at our year-end results in February, we'll give you full guidance at that point in time.

Your next question comes from the line of [ Adrianne Warta ] with JPMorgan.

Pretty impressive what the company has done in terms of margins in the last in the prior 2 years and also even on this year where it's heading to be more than another 1 percentage point. Can you share with us more color on how this trend should evolve? How do you see the price to cost spread especially across the three different divisions. I mean, the margin improvement in this quarter, mainly coming from the building solutions in the U.S. and from international solutions. How do you see this evolving and the opportunities for 2026?

[ Adrianne ], Jim here. Yes, listen, really pleased again with the margin improvement in the quarter, up 100 basis points. And based on the guidance we've given this morning for the full year, that's -- this will be our 12th consecutive year, right, which is really reflecting that proven track record and consistency of delivery year in, year out.

As I said, actually recently, I mean the -- we don't see any structural ceiling to where we can take the margins, and it's really as embedded as part of our performance mindset and deeply embedded in the culture of the company. And at the recent Investor Day, fact is we raised our ambition on the margins, and we're forecasting margins and targets out of 22% to 24% by 2030. And there's a number of reasons which have given us confidence that we're going to achieve these margin increases.

Firstly, it's around the CRH winning way. That continued consistent execution of our superior strategy. The relentless quarter-on-quarter, year-after-year focus on driving performance, whether that's a quite operational commercial or even procurement, right?

And secondly, you would have noticed that we did communicate, we did step up our growth CapEx [ mandature ], right, about 18 months ago. And we're beginning to see now the benefits of that coming through in terms of margin expansion, and we've got reasonably good visibility on that as we look forward. Maybe, Randy, do you want to comment specifically on some other aspects, maybe and actually, maybe what's happening on the cost inflation side of things?

Yes, absolutely. Maybe just to build on the growth CapEx, we have a really good backlog of projects, high returning projects that certainly drive underlying improvement in the business, everything from kind of capacity expansion to automation, in a variety of different ways. We look at our critical infrastructure business, kind of enhancing our pipe manufacturing process through the use of automation, just another means by which to drive those efficiencies and meet growing demand in that segment.

When we look at the environment in terms of cost inflation, we certainly are still in an inflationary environment. So labor, raw materials, parts, maintenance, subcontractor those costs continue to move forward. I think it certainly highlights the need for that further pricing momentum that I talked about as we go into next year. But all in all, as Jim called out, in terms of that structural -- no structural ceiling to our margins, I think we should expect another year of margin expansion as we go into next year.

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

So you guys are raising the midpoint of the EBITDA guide, which you pointed out that it now includes Eco Materials and there's definitely several moving pieces here, but could you dive a little bit more into -- and maybe walk us through some of the key drivers here of the updated 2025 guidance.

Yes, absolutely, Trey. Yes, listen, very firstly, very pleased to be announcing this morning the tightening and the raising of the full year EBITDA guidance by about $50 million at the midpoint. And maybe I'd ask Nancy to come back on maybe some of the puts and takes at the end of this. But with the increase of $50 million, that gives us a midpoint of $7.65 billion, which is 10% growth, which is off a very strong 2024, in fact, a record year for CRH in 2024, which highlights kind of durable growth nature of the connected portfolio of local brands that we have.

The increase in guidance reflects really a strong quarter 3 again with EBITDA up 10%, margins up 100 basis points and contributions from recent acquisitions as well. And again, I guess we should remember that Q3 2024 was a record quarter for us as well. So we're stepping off kind of like-for-like a very strong quarter 3 in 2024. The quarter -- Q3 did benefit from some land sales, but actually year-to-date land sales are down year-on-year, right, over 2024. And maybe ask Randy, maybe a comment on how we think about it and how we manage land sales across CRH.

Yes. I think we look at kind of optimizing that portfolio of assets as we do of any other part of kind of driving underlying performance. So it's about optimizing performance plus the portfolio. You call out the CRH winning way. This is an expectation we would have of our teams on the ground, right? So that relentless focus on operational excellence, maximizing share for holder value, and that includes the management of the assets. We take advantage of the scale that we have, 4,000 locations, the ability for us to recycle and optimize that asset base. That's an important part of how we compound earnings for our shareholders. And as you call out year-to-date, those dollars are lower than prior year.

And then just a follow-on, our updated guide does really reflect our strong year-to-date performance across all of our key metrics. And as we've talked, it has been an active year for M&A and that does include Eco having closed in September.

And just as one reminder, while the adjusted guidance does include our partial year EBITDA contribution from Eco and other M&A. Also remember the size and timing of the Eco transaction in Q4 and also some transaction and financing costs. You can expect that to be EPS dilutive into Q4 of 2025.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America.

I'm just curious if you could unpack the drivers of the performance and the margin expansion in Americas building solution. There's been a lot more data points, point to weakness in repair remodeling, incremental weakness in residential. And we saw the performance in Americas Building Solutions this quarter. I hope you can kind of unpack what you're seeing there, what you feel is sustainable going forward and into 2026.

Yes. Mike, yes, as you know, firstly, maybe Americas Building Solutions, it comprises both our infrastructure business in the Americas, but also the outdoor living. And maybe I might ask Rob to come back and outdoor living. But firstly, overall, right, a very strong Q3 performance, right? Adjusted EBITDA up 22% and margin well ahead of last year. What's driving that was overall good underlying demand, good commercial management. And as we just mentioned, also the benefit of some asset disposals in the quarter.

But what's really driving on the infrastructure, firstly, is what is really the real strength, the underlying strength across the Americas of the whole reindustrialization activity. Primarily around data centers. And as you know, given our scale, our national footprint, we're very well positioned for most projects, nearly all projects within 50 miles with CRH location. And in fact, right now, we're working on, in total, about 98 different data center projects. They're all at different stages of completion, but it gives you some feel for the kind of scale of activity there.

And really what plays into [indiscernible] sweet spot on this is the connected nature of the portfolio. That's a real advantage, right? That we're often, as I said earlier, first on site with our infrastructure products, then we're supporting that with our aggregates and cement. And if you're a contractor building data centers, what really matters right now, it's around quality and speed of delivery, certainty and speed of delivery. And we have a real advantage, competitive advantage there. And that comes true when we get to talk about margins and pricing as well on those jobs. Maybe Randy in Outdoor Living.

Yes. Outdoor Living, certainly, I think, performing very, very well. When you look at underlying hardscapes, mainstream packaged products, all really moving forward this year. You have to remember coming from a very strong performance and growth over recent years coming out of COVID. The team has done a really terrific job in kind of sustaining that momentum, engaging with our customers the right way.

And again, this is where we play here has been the most resilient in terms of repair and remodel. That's been a very purposeful effort, but the team has delivered well. It takes a lot of areas of focus, in particular, to call out kind of our category-leading brands. That's really what draws kind of the connected nature with our customers and as well as the logistics network that we built to be able to service on time on a consistent basis.

So and I think fundamentally, and Jim has called it out, that business is very deeply connected to the underlying Ag and Cementitious business. So that combination of delivery certainly has been impressive this year, and we look for more positive momentum even as we get into '26.

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

I know a lot of focus on data centers and reindustrialization, which is certainly driving demand. And after having gone to a data center construction site, it is pretty staggering the demand that is driving wide rate projects. But that said, infrastructure is still a very important part of your business overall. And there's been a little bit of lack of visibility with kind of U.S. in terms of government funding right now with the government shutdown. But it still looks like that infrastructure funding is still chugging along just fine.

But we want to make sure that, that is the correct interpretation. More importantly, what is your level of visibility on your roads business and the process prospects for the Highway Bill reauthorization in 2026.

Kathryn, yes, maybe just you're right, infrastructure for us is our biggest segment, right? It's a segment which really drives CRH across both Americas and International. And maybe just to put it in some context, in particular, our roads business. As you know, we're the largest road paver in the U.S. with in excess of 50 million tons of asphalt per annum across 43 states and as I said earlier. It's actually most predictable and recurring revenue stream that we have, and it's a highly attractive business.

Now there's still very significant runway for growth in the business as we look into '26. With still 60% of the IIJA funds yet to be spent. And as I said earlier, the very healthy local state budgets. It's a key part of our connected portfolio in the Americas, right? In a typical year, to give a bit of scale, we do about 4,000 paving jobs per year. They typically last about 90 to 120 days, right? And with the connected nature of the portfolio, that paving activity really pulls through the highest quality and the highest value and the highest margin aggregates through our connected portfolio.

We called it out recently actually on the Investor Day by actually not just producing Ags. We have that ability to take what is kind of an indicative $10 per cash profit per ton and turn that into $60 by turning it into asphalt -- adding liquid asphalt and indeed paving it. And it's a real multiplier for profits, cash and returns for us. It's also less capital intensive with higher returns. And ultimately, in terms of the growth and the inorganic side gives us real optionality for where we deploy capital.

Now we're kind of what 5, 6 weeks out from the year-end. We've got pretty good visibility into 2026 in terms of our bidding on the activity levels, and that's what gives us that confidence in terms of guiding on infrastructure at '26. But maybe, Randy, on specifically what we're thinking around maybe the new highway bill as well. Can you give some comment on that?

Yes. I guess, first, just -- bill, on Jim's point, the IIJA, as you know, Kathryn, about 60% of that funding has yet to really hit the street. So -- and we called that out. And I think we said early on was a 5-year piece of legislation was going to take 7 years to deploy. It's kind of how it is rolling out currently, which is really no different than any other legislation prior to that, just kind of how things have work from a federal to the state level. So our bidding activity is up. So we're encouraged by that. I think the other thing is it's also encouraging to see the size and the complexity of projects. So to me, that speaks to long-term confidence at the state level about deploying capital in those type of projects.

So I guess -- but to your point about what's next, I guess, early conversations are positive. So it's great to hear from the Chairman of the House T&I Committee from Secretary Duffy from both sides of the aisle in terms of underlying commitment to a new piece of legislation. So the conversations are beginning and so far positive. I think probably the most encouraging thing would be this mindset of moving more dollars to roads, highways and bridges. What that quantum looks like. I'm not sure, but it's encouraging to hear those kind of conversations on both sides of the aisles. And so we're actively participating with those conversations, and we'll see where it ends up. But certainly encouraged by early discussions. Thank you and good luck.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners.

Okay. Yes, good. So Jim, I just want to get your thoughts on the M&A pipeline as you're accelerating on your four connected platforms, where now or are you seeing some of the focus on the capital allocation towards M&A over the next 6 to 12 months?

Yes. Sure, Mike. Yes, listen, really pleased with the execution to date, right? $3.5 billion on 27 deals, the largest, which is Eco Material and maybe come back at that at the end, and maybe get Randy to talk about how that's going from an integration perspective and how it started, right? But a great start to the year, 27 deals and really reflects the continued successful execution of our growth strategy and our ability to deploy capital in growth markets across our key platforms.

And you said it in the question actually, we -- at this stage, we've built four growth platforms of scale, coast to coast across the U.S. in aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. It also reflects our ability to integrate. I mean, 27 deals year-to-date to be able to integrate those at pace and get early execution and delivery on synergies as well reflects kind of just that growth capability that we have. The pipeline at this stage into 2026 is good, right? And that, again, is really coming from a lot of the local relationships that we have across the 300 operating businesses across CRH.

And it's really, again, when you layer that kind of scale, the connected nature of the portfolio, it really gives us optionality as to where we choose to deploy capital going forward. And at the recent Investor Day, would have called out that on the medium term out to 2030, we estimate that we're going to generate $40 billion of financial capacity. And we're going to allocate that approximately 70% to the growth side, so growth CapEx and M&A and then 30% in terms of shareholder returns. So the consistent year in, year out ability to deploy capital in value-accretive acquisitions really highlights us as the kind of leading compounder of capital in the industry. But a great start to the year and good activity level across the full business, both the Americas and International into '26. But Randy, maybe on Eco?

On Eco, yes. Early days so far, but the integration is going really well. I think maybe when you stand back, we were excited about the opportunity before and even more so as we've got an opportunity to bring them into the CRH fold. I think I'd call out a couple of things. Obviously, it's a fantastic team, terrific leaders and organization from an operational standpoint, and a great brand, and we're going to continue to build off that brand.

I think from a cultural standpoint, a great deal of alignment, right? They're focused on ensuring their teams are safe. That's our #1 value within CRH, great to see. It's the ownership of those relationships, really deep local relationships, the importance of that, and that's in direct alignment with how we look at our local brands and how we go to market. But as we got inside, certainly, we're seeing things that we would continue to build off of. One, they have a terrific offering with current customers, the ability for us to integrate that to our cementitious business with Ash Grove is going to give us plenty of opportunities from a commercial standpoint. And remember, the FCMs are the fastest segment of the cementitious space. And so it was important for us to play there, and they deliver a lot of optionality for customers.

I think that's that I think I called it out in the opening remarks, the network that they've built. It gives us an additional 55 terminals across the U.S. close to 8,000 railcars to really extend our reach to our customer base, which is very important to provide high-quality product in a timely manner. And I think lastly, what they have done really well is drive innovation in this space. The customers that we're engaged with, whether it's on high-spec manufacturing or data centers, a focus on sustainability. They've done an incredible job of really advancing that in their overall offering. It's going to be a terrific combination with our scale.

So overall, excited as to where we are at this point in time. I think there's a tremendous amount of value for our business and overall shareholders and a great opportunity for us to continue to drive margins forward.

We have time for one last question, and that question comes from the line of Colin Sheridan with Davy.

My question is on the International Solutions business. Clearly, it's had an excellent Q3 in terms of the growth and good margin progress. But looking forward, I just wonder if there's any areas of that business you might think will provide opportunities for some further upside as we go into 2026.

Yes, listen, as you called out a really good quarter. Actually, really good year-to-date and building off a really strong 2024 as well. But year-to-date adjusted EBITDA and margin growth across the International Solutions business. It's an encouraging outlook, Colin, into 2026. And in fact, beyond it, I'd say, for the next 3 to 5 years across the international portfolio. And it's really recovering from what has been a challenging period, right? It has had a numerous headwinds, right? Whatever started out originally with Brexit, then we went into the pandemic, then the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, right? And -- but what we're seeing is that Europe is more advanced in the kind of interest rate cycle, the cutting of interest rates, and that's coming through in terms of being more supportive of continued residential recovery. That together with good EU level and individual state level funding for infrastructure in our key markets is providing a very significant underpin in terms of base activity levels coming from infrastructure. .

We're also this year in our eighth consecutive year of price increases across the European business, and we're expecting further momentum on that into 2026 also. And in our case also, we would have taken on a lot of portfolio and self-help measures over the last number of years across the -- particularly the European portfolio. And as activity levels are beginning to recover, we're beginning to see really good leverage on the margin drop-through on that business. And you see that coming through on the quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year performance as well. And maybe finally, just in terms of Australia, right? Really, it's a little over 12 months at this stage. Good news, really good delivery on synergies ahead of our expectations and good positive momentum into 2026.

Thanks, Colin. Well, I think that brings us to the end of the questions today. But thank you all for your attention. And as always, if any of you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations team. We look forward to talking to you all again in February next year when we will report our full year results for 2025. Thank you all, and have a good and safe day.

Thank you. Your conference call has now ended. You may now disconnect.

Those with us here in New York and to everyone joining online My name is Lauren [ Schulz ], and I'm the Chief Communications Officer for CRH. I would like to share with you some important safety information before we get started. You'll hear a lot about CRH today. But what is most important to us and core to everything that we do is safety.

Emergency routes are clearly marked all throughout the conference center and in the breakouts that we'll be in later today. There are two exits in the rear of this room and there is one here to your left. And in the event of an emergency, you are reminded to leave your belongings behind, make your way to the nearest exit, do not run, do not use the elevators, and please remain calm. The venue alarm is a siren with flashing lights. And if you hear this alarm, follow the instructions of the venue staff, who will guide you towards the nearest exit. I can confirm with everyone here today that there are no drills planned throughout the duration of our Investor Day.

Now a quick note on regulatory safety. Today's presentation may include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ due to various risks and uncertainties, but you can find further explanation of our safe harbor in the presentation deck that is available to all of you on our website, at crh.com.

Today's agenda. So we have a very exciting and informative and engaging agenda for everyone today. Our CEO, Jim Mintern, will begin the main session shortly, followed by 4 breakout sessions that will offer a deeper look into our roads, our water, our leading performance and our growth capabilities. After these sessions, we will gather back here in this room for a Q&A session.

Virtual attendees. You will have access to the general session and the Q&A live, and you will have access to all of our breakout sessions online. Further details about those 4 sessions will be provided here after our main presentation. Finally, the webcast of today's session, including all associated materials are also available on our website crh.com. Thank you for your attention on those details now. Let's get started.

[Presentation]

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the CRH Investor Day for 2025. We have a really exciting morning ahead of us. I think it's really fitting that we're here right at the heart of Midtown Manhattan, a city, New York that symbolizes ambition, resilience and opportunity.

It's also fitting because we're right at the heart actually of CRH here, right? We to our leading and connected network of assets have been shaping skylines, have been connecting communities, and really powering progress for more than a century. In fact, our materials, our products and services have built over half of this great city.

Well, everyone in the room here this morning has already interacted with CRH in some shape or form. Whether that was on the road or the subway that got you all here this morning. Our weather indeed was the infrastructure, delivering the water and energy to your homes and houses.

CRH is not just part of New York's past. It's woven in the presence, and it is driving its future. Now it's 2 years to the months since we listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So as CEO, I felt it was timely that we get together. To give you all a deeper understanding of CRH of who we are, and to set out our ambition for our new phase of growth, our year of growth, and specifically, our new 2030 targets.

This morning, we will set out how we carefully and have strategically built out market leadership positions over 5 decades, both in America and in Europe. And why today, CRH is America's largest infrastructure play, with a scale and national footprint and a connected portfolio, which today is impossible to replicate.

You will hear also as to why we win as an organization. Why CRH is the leading compounder of capital in our industry, consistently delivering superior shareholder returns, whether that is over at 12 months, a 10-year, or indeed over any period in our 55-year history. So what makes us the most consistent performer in our industry?

Well, to explain that this morning, we're going to take you inside the CRH growth algorithm. The growth algorithm, which drives that consistent performance, delivery and compounding of capital. The growing infrastructure megatrends that underpin our business, we're going to explain later how our roads and water businesses are uniquely positioned to capitalize on these long-term structural drivers. We will explain how and where we decide to deploy capital, and then having acquired businesses how we go about making them better. We will set out our growth ambition to 2030, and how we are going to lead CRH, your company, into its next era of growth and value creation.

We're going to take some time and talk about what we believe makes us special as a company. The CRH winning way, our secret sauce, which differentiates us from everybody else. And at the heart of this is our unique culture, cultivated over 5 decades of entrepreneurial leadership. Our superior strategy enabled by unmatched scale and a connected portfolio that drives higher profits, returns and cash. And we will discuss our customer-centric approach. How our portfolio in CRH, a portfolio of 300 local leading brands, solves our customers' most challenging problems. And how we connect -- we connect our local leadership and global capabilities to supercharge our leading performance.

Over the last 2 years here in New York, I've got regularly asked, how can you have possibly -- how can you have 11 years of consecutive margin expansion? And surely, this is the end of the road. Can you sustain that? Well, this morning, we're going to unpack during the breakout sessions, our unique leading performance and growth capabilities, that enable that consistent year in, year out delivery on performance. And ultimately, this morning, we will set out why CRH is a true compounder in every sense of capital of growth and of shareholder value.

Now you're going to have the opportunity today to meet some of the wider leadership team in CRH. CRH is not run by any one individual, but by a world-class team. And in my 24 years in CRH, we are fortunate today to have what I believe is the strongest ever leadership team we've had in CRH with over 200 years of industry experience amongst us as a team, and a team that is supported by a deep pipeline of incredible talent throughout our organization.

Now I'm going to be joined on stage shortly by Randy Lake, our COO; by Nancy Buese, our CFO. And later today, you're going to have the opportunity to meet and hear from Nathan Creech, our President of Americas; Peter Buckley, our President of International; and JP San Agustín, our Head of Strategy, Innovation and Venturing.

This morning, you're going to get a really good sense of the strong alignment between us as a leadership team and you as our shareholders. Now my role as CEO is clear. Is to continuously drive value for all our stakeholders, whether that's our employees, our customers or for you, our shareholders. And my goal today is when we leave here this morning that everybody has a much better understanding of CRH, your company, the global leader in building materials, of our unique entrepreneurial culture and relentless pursuit of excellence. And the characteristics that have made it a privilege for me to dedicate the majority of the most of my working life to this amazing company. And ultimately, how we are raising our ambition to deliver the next era of growth and value creation for CRH.

We are not just the leading building materials company. We are not just the #1 infrastructure play in the U.S. We are a leading industrial company, a true compounder of capital, a company that's built for growth, and powered by performance. A must-own stock in every portfolio.

Now with that, I'm going to ask Nancy and Randy to join me on stage. And here on the front row this morning, we have our leadership team in CRH. We're also joined by Mr. [ Richie Boucher ], our Chairman of CRH. They're sitting here in the front, and I hope during the course of this morning, and over lunch, you have a chance to talk to them all. So thank you.

So starting with who we are, a high-level overview of CRH. We are the largest building materials business in North America and in Europe. Our size and our scale carefully built out over 5 decades of entrepreneurial leadership, is unmatched in our industry, and nearly impossible to replicate. Today, we employ 80,000 people across 4,000 locations, and we have a market cap of over $75 billion.

This morning, we have reaffirmed our full year guidance of an adjusted EBITDA of between $7.5 billion to $7.7 billion EBITDA, representing yet another record year for CRH, and a year of double-digit growth building on top of what was a record year in '24. And that EBITDA is broadly equivalent to the combined total of our 3 next listed peers in the U.S.

Scale matters in our industry, but it's not just about being bigger. It's about being smarter, more connected and more consistent. Our unmatched scale, combined with our connected portfolio, gives us a commercial, operational and strategic advantages that sets CRH apart, and enable us to deliver superior performance year after year. And the results speak for themselves. Over the last decade, we have delivered compound annual adjusted EBITDA growth of 15%. EPS of 17%, and free cash flow growth of 11%. We are also the only company in our sector to have achieved 11 consecutive year of margin expansion, demonstrating the consistency of performance, and the relentless focus on improvement.

And in fact, since 1970, CRH has delivered an industry-leading compound annual total shareholder return of over 16%. Now that's a hallmark of a true capital compounder, a business that consistently grows creates value and delivers for shareholders over the longer term.

As you can see from the map and Jim mentioned the strategic -- strategically building out that platform in 3 of the most attractive construction markets in the world.

In the U.S., we planted our flag in 1978. And since that point in time, it become the largest building materials in North America, which represents approximately 75% of the group's adjusted EBITDA. And when you look at how that position has been built on 2,000 locations, 50,000 employees, we've really been the benefactor of strong market positions, starting with our aggregate position. That national footprint gives us both the regional and sector and end-use exposure that really gives us both higher growth and more consistent performance.

And really to break that down, look at two markets, in particular, the distinction between these two markets. The northeastern part of the United States certainly described and experienced as a highly populated area, very dense, probably the most extensive infrastructure market in the country, harsh winters that really drives significant repair and remodel demand creating a very highly predictable and recurring revenue stream. You can compare that to some of our higher growth markets in the south and the west of Texas and Florida. Really focused on new build construction based upon population growth and that inward migration. It really is a focus for us not only to build out the residential market but also the infrastructure business as well.

Turning to our international business, which represents 25% of the group's adjusted EBITDA, very attractive footprints and strong market positions. Central and Eastern Europe, the demand is driven by significant new build construction, supported by government and EU funding. And as you turn to Western Europe, a very resilient repair and remodel market with strong infrastructure exposure. It serves really as the hub for innovation, design, advanced technologies, where we're proud to be at the forefront of that, the ability to capture those ideas and concepts and translate those in the United States and scale.

And we've built a leadership position now in Australia market with stable dynamics, robust growth prospects and very similar to the southern part of the U.S., and/or Central and Eastern Europe. But across all of these geographies, our strategic positioning ensures that CRH is not just present, but that we're market leaders, with the scale and growth exposure needed to drive long-term value creation.

Maybe walk through each one of these businesses, the unique businesses that we have in a little greater detail. The Americas Solutions business, Material Solutions, that's our largest business, represents 55% of the adjusted EBITDA across the group, leading positions in aggregate, cementitious and roads in North America. It's complemented very well with Americas Building Solutions, where we're the #1 provider of critical infrastructure and outdoor living solution. And this segment represents 20% of our adjusted EBITDA.

And I mentioned the international business that we have, the exposure there, 25% of the group's adjusted EBITDA where we hold those strong leadership positions in Europe and in Australia. What Jim described kind of our effort over the last number of decades in the U.S. in particular, where we've become the #1 infrastructure player in North America. And that's been a very deliberate build-out based upon four really key areas of our business. And it all begins though, with aggregate, a valuable finite resource that really is the backbone of the business. And 95% of our revenue is connected to aggregates.

Aggregate feeds everything that we do from our cementitious business to our roads business, to our water infrastructure platforms. And here, our position is unrivaled. 230 million tons of annual production. 20 billion tons of reserves. CRH has ownership of more reserves in the ground than anyone else in our industry. And building on that foundation, we've become the leader in cementitious materials with 25 million tons of annual production capacity. And between those two, aggregate and cementitious, there really are the essential elements that allows us and enables us to build, maintain and improve the network that serves our communities, and that our economies rely on every day.

And then through that connected portfolio, CRH is also now the largest road paper in the United States. It's a business that's supported by recurring revenue and robust public funding. And here, we produce more than 50 million tons of asphalt on an annual basis, equivalent to the next 5 players combined. And our paving operations are almost entirely self-supplied through our aggregates -- high-value aggregate and asphalt. And that connected portfolio allows us to capture more value at every step of the chain, delivering higher profits, stronger returns and greater cash generation.

We're also the leader in water infrastructure, a market we first entered nearly 50 years ago. And today, we provide engineered solutions and systems that collect, protect and transport this vital resource. And we have national coverage. And over 80% of the products that we produce consume aggregate and/or cementitious materials. And since over 85% of every road requires some sort of water management system, you can see the connected nature and the benefit that our portfolio brings to that set of customers. And taken together, these 4 platforms, aggregates, cementitious materials, roads and water, they really form the foundation of our unique position as the #1 infrastructure player in North America, a position built for growth and long-term value creation.

Having looked at our geographic reach and strategic positioning, now let's look at our financial delivery. We have a proven track record of creating superior value for our shareholders.

Over the past decade, in addition to growing our top line, we have delivered a 15% compound annual growth rate in adjusted EBITDA. And at the same time, we have significantly expanded our margins, which are up over 900 basis points. This performance is a direct result of our winning way, which Jim will talk more about in a few minutes. We are proud of our delivery of 11 consecutive years of margin improvement, reflecting our relentless focus on performance, a key part of our DNA.

Our focus on operational excellence has translated into strong growth in earnings per share, free cash flow and return on invested capital, all financial metrics for our business. Over the past decade, we have delivered compound annual EPS growth of 17%, annual free cash flow growth of 11%, and nearly 700 basis points of uplift in our returns, for return on invested capital of 13.4%. Our performance across each of these metrics highlights the strength of our business and our ability to consistently deliver over the long term.

And when you look at our performance through the lens of total shareholder return, the story is just as compelling. We have significantly outperformed both the S&P 500 Index, and as well as some of the best in our industry. Over the last 1, 10 and even 55 years with compound annual total shareholder return of almost 36%, 17.5% and 16.2% over the last 55 years. This exceptional consistency reflects our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry. And underscored by CRH continues to be such a powerful platform for long-term growth and value creation.

So how has this all been possible? What is unique about CRH that enables us to consistently outperform the industry? The answer is embodied in what we refer to as our growth algorithm. And it's set out here, and it's been cultivated and refined over the past 55 years, and this is what drives our industry-leading performance. And this morning, we're going to take some time and start unpacking this. We will explore how CRH is the leading infrastructure play in North America. We are uniquely positioned to capitalize on three large and growing megatrends.

On transportation, on water and on reindustrialization. These three mega trends will support significant above-market growth and value creation for our business going forward. We're also going to take you through the CRH winning way. It's our secret sauce, and this is at the core of who we are as a company. It's ingrained in our culture. It is the multiplier effect that enables us to fully capitalize on these mega growth trends and enables us to continue to outperform the industry, as well as consistently deliver double-digit earnings growth.

All of this represents a powerful combination, which has not just delivered our strong track record of growth, profitability and return over the last decade. But it's going to continue to drive superior value creation into the future.

So let's talk a little bit about these growing megatrends and how they're reshaping and shaping the build environment and how they become growth tailwinds for CRH.

As the #1 infrastructure play in North America, we stand at the center of some of the most powerful growth catalyst, and Jim talked about those being transportation, water and reindustrialization. And the critical role that we play by building and maintaining the U.S. transportation infrastructure system, which is the most largest and most extensive network in the world from everything that we've known to roads and bridges to airports, ports, and railways. It's our materials, products and the solutions that we provide that are essential to connecting those communities and allowing our economy to operate and function well.

And with a growing population and the expanding economy, there's a significant ongoing need to maintain and modernize and expand that underlying infrastructure system to meet those challenges of tomorrow. But really one of the most critical and most urgent challenges today is water management. Across the U.S., much of the existing water infrastructure is outdated or under stress. And there's a need, certainly to update those systems that collect, transport and treat the water, not just for public safety and our health but also for the long-term resilience of the communities in which we operate. And we're uniquely positioned as the leading water infrastructure player in the United States, our national footprint and that deep expertise that we have across storm water, wastewater and [ potable ] water gives us a significant advantage as investment in these areas accelerate.

But beyond transportation and water, we continue to benefit from the powerful wave of reindustrialization. Everything from energy, infrastructure to the reshoring of advanced manufacturing, the surge in data centers driven by the demand of artificial intelligence. It's here, our capabilities and scale ensure that CRH is positioned to deliver where the needs are the greatest.

But let's just dig into these a little deeper and expand on each one of these. Transportation, certainly, we're well familiar with it remains most -- one of the most reoccurring and predictable revenue streams for our business. It's underpinned by robust and sustained public funding at both the state and the federal level. $350 billion from the IIJA allocated to highways and roads Around 60% of those dollars have yet to be deployed. So it highlights the runway we still have ahead of us. And actually, when you look into next year, state budgets are projected to increase by 6% in terms of their underlying investment in their infrastructure.

Water infrastructure represents another significant and fast-growing market for CRH. It is a $100 billion ecosystem, driven not by discretionary spending, but by urgent investment necessity, with roughly 1/3 of the U.S. water infrastructure network more than 50 years old, and the American Society of Civil Engineers indicating a $1 trillion spend needed by 2033, the scale of the opportunity is extraordinary. And CRH is uniquely positioned to deliver. You're going to hear a lot more about water during the breakout group later this morning.

At the same time, reindustrialization is accelerating. The demand for AI is fueling that expansion of data centers, and CRH is strategically located to capture this growth. In fact, with 85% of all the U.S. data centers that are either under construction, or proposed to be constructed, they're within 30 miles of any one of our locations. So our reach is wide. These projects tend to be large, complex, and highly specified. Really plays to the strength not just to the products that we offer, but also the engineering and technical services that we provide.

It also focuses on the modernization of our energy infrastructure and reshoring those supply chains. And so you take those together, transportation, water, reindustrialization, they represent really one of the most compelling growth opportunities in decades. And with our unmatched scale, the national footprint, the connected portfolio across aggregates, cementitious roads and waters, we're uniquely positioned to capitalize on these growing mega trends.

So turning now to the second component of our growth algorithm, which is the CRH winning way. At the heart of our success is our unique entrepreneurial culture, one which has been nurtured and refined over the past 55 years. The culture is at the heart and the foundation of what we call our winning way. A mindset that unites our employees, brings clarity and consistency, and focus to everything we do. And our winning way is anchored around four key levers highlighted here in the center of this circle.

These levers are what drives superior execution of our strategy, delivering leading performance across 4,000 locations in CRH and guides our disciplined approach to capital allocation, ensuring we maximize value for our shareholders while continuing to grow with scale and with confidence. But before we unpack each of these levers in detail, we first want to highlight kind of four critical enablers that surround and support them. And these are shown here in the outer ring. These enablers are the backbone of our approach and how we bring our winning way to life each and every day, ensuring that our strategy is not only effective but crucially, a strategy that is repeatable, scalable and predictable over the long term.

The first of our winning way, the first enabler rather of our winning way, is our customer-centric approach. At CRH, our success is because we operate locally. Close to our customers, close to our communities and close to the opportunities that drive growth. Construction and infrastructure is local. We talk about it globally, and we talk about the national level, but all construction and infrastructure is done at a local level, and that's why we operate at a local level with local leading brands.

In the U.S. alone, we operated more than 200 trusted brands and a selection of these, you can see on the right-hand side of this slide. Similarly, in Europe and in Australia, we have approximately 90 long-term, long-established and trusted local brands. Many of these businesses have been the cornerstones of their communities for generations.

For example, we're here in New York, we trade as [ Telkom ]. [ Telkom ] can trace its roots back to the late 19th century. In Salt Lake City, we're [indiscernible], a business that was formed in the 1950s. These names carry real weight and real trust in the local markets and communities they serve. And when we acquire these new businesses, we typically keep those local brands and management teams in place. We don't change the names of the businesses. This ensures that we maintain the strong community ties that customers value, while also deepening the loyalty and strengthening and presence in the local market.

We also then empowered the local teams with an ownership mindset, given them both the autonomy and the incentives to grow and improve their businesses year after year. And this is a powerful reflection of the CRH entrepreneurial spirit, one that has been central to our success over the past 5 decades. And importantly, these deep local relationships are not only a competitive advantage with customers, but crucially with potential partners. They underpin our unrivaled acquisition pipeline. And there the reason why CRH is so often seen as the acquirer of choice in small and medium-sized businesses in our industry.

Now the next two enablers we're going to talk about is our -- in our winning way are our unmatched scale and our connected portfolio, which combined gives CRH a level of reach and capability that is truly unparalleled in our industry. Our story in the U.S. is as a result of more than 5 decades of careful, disciplined growth, which started back in 1978 with the acquisition of a concrete products business in Utah. From that starting point, we have built out a footprint that today spans every major infrastructure market in the country. And the foundation of it all is our aggregates network. More than 800 locations nationwide, providing the essential building blocks for everything we do.

Next, our cementitious product businesses with over 600 locations supporting an extensive national presence. Turning to -- turning next to our Roads business, where we operate for more than 500 locations across 43 states, Here, you can see the extensive overlap between our roads business and the aggregate footprint, highlighting the efficiency and co-located nature of our operations.

And finally, our water infrastructure business, serving customers across the U.S. from almost 80 locations. These sites are strategically positioned close to our aggregates and close to our [indiscernible] locations, enabling us not only to self-supply but to seamlessly support our roads business, given that 85% of all roads require water management systems.

Now when you step back and look at the combined picture, the scale and connectivity of our footprint is extraordinary. It creates competitive advantage that are almost impossible to replicate. Driving efficiency, deepening customer relationships and unlocking growth opportunities across multiple markets.

So let me bring it all together, our customer centricity, our empowered local teams, our unmatched scale and our connected portfolio. We have a business model that is truly differentiated. These are the enablers of our winning way, and they are what positions CRH to deliver consistent performance and long-term value creation.

Now let's take a closer look at the four key levers of our winning way, highlighted here in the center of the circle. These levers are what enable us to execute our strategy with consistency and discipline. Together, these levers gives CRH the ability to grow with confidence with scale and with purpose. And continue setting the standard of excellence in our industry.

The first lever of our winning way is our superior strategy. As we've highlighted earlier, we have strategically positioned our businesses across 4 key platforms. Aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. These platforms are not only essential to building and maintaining critical infrastructure, but they also directly align with the growing megatrends that Randy talked about earlier that are shaping the future of our industry.

Now in these poor platforms, scale matters, and it is a powerful differentiator in each of these markets. And CRH is the largest aggregates reserves in North America and operates one of the leading cementitious platforms in the country. Now together, these two essential materials form the backbone for what is the nation's most extensive road and infrastructure businesses. Both positioned at the center of long-term growth opportunities.

But scale is not -- scale on its own is not enough. What sets CRH apart is how we operate. With decades of experience and unmatched capabilities, we deliver best-class operational and commercial excellence, running these businesses more effectively and efficiently than anyone else in our industry. Our customer-centric approach keeps us close to the market, close to our customers, enabling us to better understand their needs at every stage, from product design from project design to product specification.

This insight allows us to unlock cross-selling opportunities, leveraging our connected portfolio to deliver value-added for our customers. The result of this portfolio is the result is a portfolio today in CRH that is more consistent. It's more predictable. It is characterized by lower capital intensity, greater optionality for the capital deployment and the ability to compound growth and value creation year after year.

So let's bring superior strategy to life a bit and explore the example from our Roads business, a business that delivered -- we've developed over time and deliver certainly strong cash and exceptional return on invested capital.

Within our fully connected roads offering, we go beyond just supplying the material of aggregates, we actually deliver a full suite of value-added products and services from mixed designs, to the asphalt product itself, to the paving capabilities. Everything that's essential to deliver a finished and high-quality road.

One of the things that we talk about often, and we have here, is in and around the position of our aggregate business, and that certainly is the foundation. But as you move from left to right, you can see another significant competitive advantage we have and the ability to procure and store up to half of our annual liquid asphalt needs. And certainly that surety of supply is important. We have to have the product during paving season, but also provides us cost certainty and the ability to lock in margins ahead of the paving season.

But often, I think an underappreciated value as well is our ability to customize asphalt blends to tailor those products to the needs of a specific customer. I've often said every road is uniquely designed and the ability for us to actually combine the right kind of products together and provide that unique product gives us a significant competitive advantage.

As you move into our paving -- the paving side of our business. We are self-supply with all the high-quality aggregate and asphalt, and provides us that direct route to market. It reduces the capital intensity, increases the cash generation and drives higher returns. And to really illustrate the impact and how that actually works, you start with an assumed as a simple example, assumed $10 per ton of cash gross profit of aggregate. We convert that $10 into $60, a sixfold increase.

But if you look at the roads business itself, it also has a superior profile and provides 300 basis points of return accretion compared to just supplying aggregate alone. The real clear demonstration of superior returns. And this is the essence of our connected roads offering. It's creating and capturing value at every step of the way. We just don't view this business as a distribution channel for aggregate. We actually capture margin in each one of those phases. And it's one example of how we can compound value for shareholders. maximize profits, generate cash and deliver optionality for future growth in a market that remains very highly fragmented. There's much more what we're going to explore here during one of the breakouts in and around our roads business, and so we'll get into that into further detail.

Another great example of our strategy in action is the build-out of our leading cementitious platform in North America. The U.S. cementitious market itself is a high-growth area with a significant structural deficit in terms of domestic supply. Roughly 25% of the annual consumption is handled through imports. And our presence in this business really started in earnest in 2018 with the acquisition of [ Ash Grove ], 8 strategically located cement plants, a network of aggregates and ready-mixed concrete, along with logistics assets that allow us to penetrate the South, Midwest and the northwestern part of the United States. And it's probably the best deal that we've ever done in CRH. We've tripled the profitability, and probably more importantly, provided a real platform for further expansion.

And that came about with our acquisition even last year of the Hunter assets outside of San Antonio, Texas. 2.1 million tons of cement in that high-growth market, along with 20 ready-mix facilities and, probably as importantly, the network of import terminals in a high-growth market that we're very complementary to our existing footprint and the connected business we have in Texas.

And most recently, we announced the acquisition of [ Eco Material ], a leading supplier of [ SCMs ] with approximately 10 million tons of productive capacity, which increases CRH's U.S. cementitious capacity by 60% to 25 million tons. As part of that deal, two significant things stand out.

One is the national distribution the rail network that's very complementary to our existing [ Ash Grove ] network and the innovation capabilities to better serve our customers. But this has been a very deliberate build-out of the U.S. cementitious platform and really another clear demonstration of our strategy.

The second lever in our winning way is in around leading performance. And at the heart of this pillar is safety. It's our #1 value. And certainly, my colleagues here who have joined us, we spend every day focused on how do we ensure the safety of the 80,000 people who are part of our business, as well as the contractors and subcontractors who support our effort. We spend a tremendous amount of time and resources in and around the systems, and training, and the technology to enhance safety and to ensure that we're identifying and eliminating risk.

And safety really is just the starting point of that wider culture of leading performance. It's the mindset that really runs deep across our entire organization. And we often say it's the belief that tomorrow can be better than today. And our leading performance is both locally owned, but then globally enabled. We empower our local teams to take accountability for delivering day-to-day execution while our global capabilities provide the tools, the best practices and the innovation that really raises our performance across the entire network. And it's the combination of those things that ensures excellence that's replicated then at over 4,000 locations.

And Jim called it out earlier, I think the results speak for themselves, 11 consecutive years of margin expansion. And I think it demonstrates not only that leading performance is not just a cultural ambition, but it's really that proven driver of operational excellence, financial strength and shareholder value.

But let's take a look at an example of leading performance in action, and how we connect that local leadership with our global expertise. Every year, we begin with a rigorous strategic planning process where we set really clear priorities, identify high-impact initiatives for each one of our businesses, all aimed at delivering our full potential. And the way we describe full potential, we ask our business leaders to say, if you were the only business in CRH, had unlimited access to capital, what could your business look like? And it's that mindset that we engage with our teams.

And then they translate those initiatives into action plans, and then they're empowered to execute whether that means driving top line growth, improving underlying efficiencies and profitability of their individual businesses, or scaling their businesses through very targeted investments. And then we track those on a monthly basis, and review those during our operating reviews. And you'll hear more about that in one of our breakout sessions later just how we actually replicate that and what it looks like and feels like at one of our 4,000 locations. But I think you can get a sense in terms of the power of that approach, how we continuously drive leading performance across our entire business.

Another example of leading performance is the action that we take in and around leading technologies, our innovation to really strengthen our leadership position. It can be everything from improving efficiencies, enhanced pricing strategies, getting us closer to our customers. But through these strategic investments and the partnerships with world-class companies, it puts us at the forefront of developing higher-performing businesses. And across all of CRH, we're advancing over 200 ongoing innovation projects. We hold over 2,000 patents, demonstrating really the scale and then the level of the ambition we have in and around innovation. And we've put up three examples on the screen for you to get a sense of what some of those are.

On the left-hand side, our proprietary pricing tool. So it's the ability for us to get real-time customer information, orders in the system matched up with inventory in local markets, to ensure we're able to deliver the product we need to but also produce dynamic pricing in high-growth markets. It's also about getting exposure to the quantum that we would sell in terms of share of wallet of customers, being able to leverage the full capabilities of our connected portfolio. And if you look in the center in and around kind of energy optimization, we talked about the scale and size of our asphalt business in the U.S. We have a very significant asphalt business in the U.K. as well. And currently, we are launching an innovative Vortex burner that burns both biomass and waste products to eliminate the need for fossil fuel. And that's gone exceptionally well, and now scaling that in the United States in some of our major markets to ensure we reduce not only the use of fossil fuels, but improve our underlying cost position.

And lastly, in and around AI, the investment in [ PhitoAI ], and AI-powered leak detection platform that supports and provides data to our end customers, specifically municipalities where they can identify leaks in their system, not have to spend money in terms of recapturing water that's already been cleaned, but also the ability to look in advance where weaknesses could occur and be proactive in the underlying maintenance. It's a way for us to engage closer with the customer and develop recurring revenue. And these are just a few of the examples of innovation across the group. They're all about driving efficiencies or engaging closer with our customers, reducing costs. But at the end of the day, they're all return accretive.

And lastly, in terms of leading performance, certainly, our commitment there goes hand-in-hand with a focus on creating value from the circular economy and sustainability. We're the largest recycler of [ any ] product in North America. Last year alone, we recycled 50 million tons of waste or byproducts. And with the recent acquisition of [ Eco Material ], it adds an additional 10 million tons of recycled products that we can then enable the production of high-quality blended cements for use in concrete to reduce and significantly reduce carbon intensity.

And so we view environmental stewardship not just as the right thing to do, but actually, it's a powerful performance enabler. And recycling in general, right, improves margin and reduced waste. It lowers depletion rates. And by relying less on [ virgin materials ], we protect a very important asset base and extend the years of our reserves, which we currently have over 80 million tons of life remaining.

And we've set a leading industry standard as well in terms of our focus on carbon reduction. Our 2030 road map with an absolute reduction of emissions by 30%, and we're continuing to make solid progress against that ambition. But I think bottom line is, if you're a leader in the construction industry, we think those who embrace innovation and the technologies are really at the forefront with the ability to reshape how our world is built.

We've talked about our superior strategy and our differentiated performance. Now let's turn to another key driver at CRH, value-creating capital allocation.

We are thoughtful, intentional stewards of our shareholders' capital. Every dollar we deploy is rigorously assessed to ensure it drives maximum long-term value. Over the last 5 years alone, we have allocated approximately $27 billion of capital around a disciplined and structured approach to grow our -- to provide growth and returns. And about $15 billion of those dollars have been allocated to value-accretive M&A, growth CapEx investments that strengthen our platforms, expand our footprint and drive growth and value for years to come.

At the same time, we've returned significant cash to shareholders through about $12 billion in dividends and share buybacks. CRH has a proud history of 55 years of consecutive dividend payments, and have provided over 40 years of stable or growing dividends. Our share buyback program has been a flexible and efficient use of capital. Since 2018, we have repurchased over $9 billion worth of shares, at an average share price of $49 a share, repurchasing almost 20% of our shares outstanding.

All of these actions are enabled by our strong and consistent cash flow generation together with our financial capacity and our proven growth capabilities, we have significant opportunity ahead of us for further value creation. Let's turn to our financial strength and credit metrics, which are the foundation for the capabilities we've created around the strategy.

CRH has created a balance sheet with strength, flexibility and optionality to navigate our next chapter of growth. We've maintained an investment grade credit rating for over 20 years. And like Jim in the role before me, I can assure you we will maintain this credit rating on my watch. And we have indicated a long-term leverage ratio comfort level around 2x.

Our current liquidity levels are ample, and we have the ability to strategically consider how we best use our balance sheet to support our deployment of capital.

One area to highlight is our intentional acceleration of growth CapEx in recent years. Because of our size, scale and position and the markets we serve, we can see opportunities early and execute on them. Randy will talk about some examples in Indiana, North Carolina and Oregon around how we identify the best projects for execution and value delivery.

We have deliberately stepped up our own CapEx investment leveraging our footprint, scale and connected portfolio to fully capture the high-quality organic growth opportunities across our markets. And these investments are carefully targeted to expand production capacity in high-growth regions, and they also will drive operational efficiencies through automation and advanced processes that lower cost and enhance performance. We're also making investments that optimize our energy usage, increasing our contribution to circularity and reducing emissions. You can see our progress and our inventory of internal projects is quite robust. These investments reflect our criteria of low-risk, high-return opportunities that expand our capabilities, support margin growth, and enhance long-term shareholder value.

So as Nancy mentioned, I wanted to give you a sense of a couple of examples on where we're deploying capital in a very targeted way to drive underlying organic improvement in the businesses.

On the left-hand side, you see one of our largest quarries in North America, Cape Sandy, which is in Southern Indiana, strategically located on the Ohio River services, 5 different states, both internally, as well as external customers. It's a $100 million investment that's going to drive, obviously, underlying efficiencies and improvement, but as importantly, increase capacity to support future growth in those states. And you'll hear more about that later in one of our breakout sessions.

In the center, you see the investment in Fayetteville, North Carolina to really address a product gap and offering down the 95 corridor in a very high-growth market across the southern part of the U.S. It's about not only addressing a gap in the portfolio that we had, but also taking care of our customers to ensure that we're a complete supplier in a growing market in terms of underlying and critical infrastructure. It's a greenfield facility.

On the right-hand side, you can see the investment in our [ Durkee ] cement mill and operations out in Oregon. It's a $65 million investment, increases the capacity by 200,000 tons, again, to meet growing demand to get ahead of the curve. And that investment is going to drive obviously cost improvement and efficiencies, but it's also an alignment directly with our decarbonization road map.

And now let's turn to the final component of our winning way, our proven growth capabilities. M&A has always been at the cornerstone of CRH, reflected a deeply embedded growth mindset across the organization. In fact, over our history, we've acquired over 1,250 businesses. That's one every 2 weeks for the last 55 years. Few companies in any industry can match that track record.

This success comes from a well-developed muscle that we have developed within CRH. Our ability to identify, acquire and integrate businesses with discipline and precision. It all starts at the local level, where our teams deeply rooted in their local communities with their local brands actively source opportunities through trusted relationships built over decades. These grassroots insights feed into a rigorous investment appraisal assessment, where every potential investment is measured against strict strategic and financial criteria. The result of this is a very repeatable model of disciplined growth that consistently creates shareholder value.

In the last decade alone, we've done over 320 acquisitions. The majority of them small bolt-on strategic bolt-on deals. The number of these deals reflects the very fragmented nature of the markets that we operate in and demonstrates why CRH is consistently viewed as the acquirer of choice for family-owned and entrepreneurial mindset of businesses in our sector. Once acquired, these businesses are then transformed through our winning way. We supercharge local leadership, with our global capabilities, leveraging our leading performance system, our best practice programs, our global procurement, and our operational and commercial excellence initiatives to deliver significant synergies and accelerate growth post acquisition.

At the same time, we applied the same discipline to active portfolio management to CRH. Over the last decade, we have completely reshaped CRH into a structurally better business today with a sharper strategic focus, and deeper positions in markets where we see the greatest long-term growth potential. The result is that today, we have a CRH, which is more focused, more connected and better positioned than ever before.

Now let's look at the proven growth capabilities in action. As Randy mentioned earlier, we have strategically built out leading platforms at scale across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water in some of the most attractive markets in the world. In the south and the west of the U.S. In Central and Eastern Europe, where in CRH, we have some of our biggest, some of our most modern, some of our most efficient plants that have really driven a key part of the growth over the last 5 years in CRH, and are going to continue to power and drive CRH in the next 5 to 10 years also. And also in Australia, where we significantly increased our investment only 12 months ago. All of this represents disciplined and value accretive capital deployment, and how we leverage the benefits of scale and of our uniquely connected portfolio of businesses.

Examples that Jim called out, but maybe we pick one in around Texas. It's -- obviously, it's a large and fast-growing state. And in fact, it's our largest state as well. But over a decade ago, we identified Texas as really a key growth platform. Due to the large scale and size, the rapidly increasing economy. The funding environment was strong for infrastructure, the investment that was going to be needed in around roads and water was clear. And then you saw as well the investment by the state to accelerate reindustrialization. And we've delivered significant growth in Texas over the last decade with compounded annual revenue growth of 16% and adjusted EBITDA of 24%, as well as expanding the underlying margin of our business.

And M&A has played a very critical role in that journey. We have done over 25 deals over the last 10 years, really aligned in and around those core areas of aggregate cementitious materials, roads and waters. And overall, that growth in Texas over the last decade, I think proves our capabilities that Jim talked about and the benefits of that connected portfolio, which has now positioned us as the #1 building materials business in the state. And again, you'll hear more of the details behind that business during one of our breakout sessions.

So in summary, CRH's winning way as our secret sauce, and it's the engine behind everything we do in CRH and it's powered by our unique entrepreneurial culture, which has evolved and built out over the last 55 years. Through the winning way, we execute a superior strategy with discipline and with focus. We drive leading performance across over 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. And we deploy capital with rigor to maximize shareholder value. We leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions in high-growth markets.

That's the combination which sets us apart, which sets CRH apart. It positions us to fully capitalize on the powerful megatrends that are shaping infrastructure, construction and reindustrialization. And it gives us confidence that we will continue to deliver industry-leading performance.

The winning way isn't just a framework. It's how CRH wins, both today and for decades to come. Now at this point, we'd like to pull all this together and take you through our expectations for the next era of growth in CRH.

To first address capital allocation. We expect to accelerate our level of growth investment in the next 5 years. Since 2020, we have deployed approximately $27 billion with over half of that allocated to growth investments. And over the next 5 years, we have the ability to deploy another $40 billion towards our growth ambitions. That's $40 billion is under [Audio Gap]

located about 70% of that pot or up from our 55%, around $28 billion to growth investments. Our unique platform allows us to lead on both growth CapEx and M&A as you heard earlier from Jim. We have the firepower to do so and our deep reach in the local markets allow [Audio Gap]

we will continue to drive organic growth in our existing businesses through low-risk, high-return growth while maintaining our financial discipline and our value-focused approach. We will continue to return cash to shareholders through share buybacks and our dividend program. And all of this is consistent with our long track record of delivering shareholder value, and it reinforces our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry.

And as we discussed earlier, we believe the growth opportunities we have are unrivaled in our industry. Thanks to our unmatched scale, crucially, our connected portfolio and the fragmented nature of the markets that we operate in today. And over the next 5 years, we expect to allocate our growth investments, again, across 4 key platforms. Aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. To fully capitalize on the opportunities that we see in front of us.

So we've shown we have the capacity and the opportunity to deliver significant future growth and value creation for our shareholders. And outlined here are our expectations to 2030. We expect to deliver annual revenue growth of between 7% and 9%, supported by our leading positions in high-growth markets, alignment with growing mega trends, as well as contribution from growth CapEx investments and M&A.

We are targeting further margin expansion across our businesses. with an adjusted EBITDA target of between 22% and 24% by 2030, and building on our strong track record of 11 consecutive years of margin improvement. We also -- we will also continue to focus on strong cash generation, and we expect to deliver over 100% free cash flow conversion, underpinning the financial capacity and capital deployment opportunities outlined earlier. And all of this is underpinned by our growth algorithm that we have spoken about over the course of the last hour, combining our alignment with growing mega trends, and the power of the CRH winning way, to deliver superior long-term growth and shareholder value.

Well, we appreciate your attention this morning. And before I invite Lauren up just to go through the logistics of the next hour, maybe to overview a bit on the breakout sessions.

You heard us mention, obviously, and talk about these particular areas, but we want to peel it back in a little more detail, give you a little more insight in terms of what it takes to be successful in each one of these areas and around our growth capabilities. And around what it means to be leading performance to actually see what that looks like in the context of individual businesses and the engagement that locally led and globally enabled concept. And then our Roads business and why we win in roads, and why we think it's such a terrific business. And the combination then with water, the idea of being connected and scale to win. And hopefully, you have the sense to I wouldn't touch it much, but look at that model out there. It's a great model. I think it does one of the best jobs of really articulating what you should expect and where we play and how we win.

So with that, Lauren, I'll invite you to handle the logistics.

So now we're going to take a short 15-minute break, after which we will begin our breakout sessions. So everyone here in the room has a badge and there are a letter associated with your badge, A,B,C or D.

Those that have letter A on your badge, you will be starting with our water breakout. The water breakout will be back here in this room after we all leave reset and then come back.

For those of you who are in Group B, you will be hearing about why we win in roads. That session will be taking place just outside these doors in the gallery.

For those of you who are in Group C, you will be heading down the hall to start with leading performance. And Group D, you will also be heading down the hall to learn more about our growth capabilities.

Each session will be approximately 15 minutes. And after each presentation, you'll then move on to the next breakout area. We have plenty of colleagues outside to help you get to where you need to be. After all of these sessions, we'll return back here to this room after another short break, where we'll have a Q&A session.

Everyone who is participating online, you will also have access to all of our breakouts. So in a moment, you'll see on your screen the agenda for the remainder of the morning, and a count down to each presentation to start, so you don't miss a thing. For you, after the 4 sessions, we'll also bring you back into this room after another short break to join us for the live Q&A session.

So thank you, everybody, and we look forward to sharing with all of you more about CRH.

[Break]

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the water breakout. My name is Jason Jackson, and I'm President of CRH Americas Materials. And prior to that, I had the good fortune to be able to lead our U.S. water infrastructure business.

And I'm Marie Glenn, the COO of our Construction Materials business in Florida. I know that water might not be the first thing you think about when you think about CRH, but it should be. Water is an extremely important part of our connected portfolio.

If you take two things away from this session, they should be, number one, we've built the leading water infrastructure business in the U.S. in terms of scale and growth. And number two, CRH is best positioned to capture the growing demand enabled by long-term tailwinds in critical water infrastructure.

You've already heard about our growth algorithm from Jim. Now let's look at how it applies to our water business. We'll start with the megatrends. In the case of our water business, the megatrends that are going to drive demand for decades to come, are aging infrastructure. A lot of America's water network is well past its intended design life and we see that every day with water main breaks, cycles, contamination events, and we're wasting billions of gallons of water every day.

Climate resilience. We're seeing more extreme weather events, and we need more robust water systems to handle them. Water scarcity, communities have to manage every drop more effectively as we face droughts in many parts of the country. These mega trends present a huge opportunity and how we capitalize on that opportunity is our CRH winning way.

Our winning way is a force multiplier for our water infrastructure business and the formula is simple. We execute on our superior strategy. We deploy capital rapidly and effectively to create value. We have the resources we need to continue to grow, and we demonstrate industry-leading performance. So when we take the megatrends and we apply our CRH winning way, this combination has allowed CRH to become a leading compounder of capital, and we've built unmatched scale and profitability.

We're not just participating in the water market. We're leading the way, and we're in the right market segments with the right geographic footprint, and the right portfolio to solve the most pressing water challenges.

Now Marie just highlighted our growth algorithm and our leading compounder status. This is the algorithm in action through the lens of our leading water business. But this isn't a stand-alone business. This is a connected platform, where 80% of our input materials come from our core of aggregates and cementitious materials. This connection to roads and materials, along with our shared customer base, gives CRH an advantaged position across the U.S. infrastructure segments.

Now yes, we are the market leader. But no, we didn't just get here. We have been in this space for nearly 5 decades, and our customers rely on us to solve their most complex challenges. It has been a deliberate and intentional build-out enabled by our growth algorithm. And we generate over $1.6 billion in annual revenue, and $0.5 billion in EBITDA through a superior strategy that keeps us focused on the two foundational elements of water infrastructure. Conveyance and flow control and water quality. Now these are not only high-growth verticals, but they are where scale and expertise matter most.

Now let's take a deeper dive into our water business and the opportunity ahead through this short video.

[Presentation]

Now that video gave you a sense of how vast and complex the U.S. water market is. A key point to remember, no two water systems are the same. They are influenced by a number of factors unique to geographies. So scale and focus enables growth and profitability. Let's go a bit deeper into where we play.

On the left, you will see our core conveyance and flow control products. These are the concrete pipes, culverts, manholes, inlets and chambers, but they aren't just structural components. They are engineered to manage how water moves and flows through the systems and networks. Manholes, for example, they play a key role in regulating flow and providing access for maintenance and inspection.

Now on the right-hand side, you see our focus on water quality. These are solutions like bio-filtration, media filtration, mechanical separation and more. These systems are designed to treat and protect downstream ecosystems. In short, we move water and we clean it, delivering connected solutions that support resilient, sustainable infrastructure.

Water infrastructure isn't just critical. It's foundational to how society functions. We all know we need water, but you probably don't spend much time thinking about how it gets where we need it to go.

This 3D streetscape shows how our products fit into the water infrastructure system that's right under our feet. You can't see these products, but the pipes, manholes, culverts and filtration systems aren't just underground assets. They're embedded in the very fabric of our communities. This infrastructure provides clean drinking water to homes and workplaces across the country. It clears away rain water and wastewater, and it safeguards our roads, properties in public health. The scale of the U.S. water network is enormous, and it's crucial to life as we know it.

Water networks serve over 300 million people across the U.S. through 2.2 million miles of potable water mains, 1.2 million miles of sanitary sewers, and 3.5 million miles of storm sewers, and this isn't optional infrastructure. It's funded at federal, state and local levels because these networks are essential. And at CRH, we have the capability to support our customers coast to coast. Scale is our superpower.

As you can see, we serve all 50 states from our 79 manufacturing facilities, combining our national reach with our local expertise we need to serve all of our customers' diverse needs. This scale enables us to capture growth and deliver higher margins. Our scale and our CRH performance systems make us more efficient and drive lower costs, giving us the competitive edge versus our peers. When you combine CRH's unmatched scale, and our cost leadership with our global capabilities like shared services, procurement strength, innovation and our digital tools that make us faster, smarter and more efficient. We have a strategic advantage that is very hard to replicate. We're not just large, we're CRH powered.

And we also focus where it matters, manufacturing high volumes of standardized flow control products while also delivering highly engineered water quality solutions that meet our demanding specifications and solve our customers' most complex challenges. We bring deep capabilities to the table with over 300 engineering and sales professionals who hold long-standing relationships with asset owners, specifying engineers, regulators and national accounts. Their expertise in design and specification is highly valued by our customers and our connection to evolving water regulations, well, that drives long-term growth.

Now we're also backed by the broader CRH network, leveraging aggregates and cementitious materials, and roads expertise to increase our influence with DOTs, municipal engineers and infrastructure contractors. In short, we are selling more volume to the same customers across roads, water and large reindustrialization projects than anyone else in our space.

Now we have walked you through how we have built our leading water business, one that delivers higher growth and better margins. Now let's pivot to the opportunity for growth and the long-term investment.

And the opportunity is huge. As I've said before and as you've seen in our video, Americas water networks are under unprecedented stress. And CRH is uniquely positioned to lead in addressing this challenge. A generational investment in U.S. water infrastructure is needed because a significant portion of the nation's drinking water wastewater and storm water networks are decades past their intended lifespan. In fact, 1/3 of America's water infrastructure is beyond its 50-year design life.

The grades you see in the American Society of Civil Engineers, infrastructure scorecard tell the story about the poor condition of our water networks. We get a D for storm water, a C- for drinking water, D+ for roads, and D+ for wastewater. They also estimate that more than $1 trillion will be required by 2033 to bring U.S. water infrastructure up to standard. And this investment is not optional. Water is essential and investment in this space is nondiscretionary. And the need is only going to increase.

Importantly, this need spans the entire U.S. And with 90% of water systems serving communities under 10,000 people, solutions have to be delivered locally. CRH is a combination of national scale and strong local expertise positions us to capture outsized value as this generational investment unfolds.

Now that we've outlined the scale of the nation's water infrastructure challenge, let's turn to the opportunity it creates for CRH. The overall water ecosystem in the U.S. is a $100 billion a year market, and we've made the strategic decision to focus on the largest and fastest-growing segments within that $100 billion ecosystem.

With that in mind, CRH's water business is focused on a $41 billion a year addressable market that covers flow control and water quality. Scale matters in these segments. And as you can see, these segments are growing faster than GDP.

Flow Control includes capture, conveyance and storage products, which have expected 5-year growth CAGRs of 6.8%, 4.9%, and 8.4% respectively. Water quality includes treatment and separation products, and these segments also have a very attractive forecasted growth CAGR of 9.7%, and 5.9%, respectively. As you can see, we've positioned ourselves to capitalize on the most attractive opportunities in the water infrastructure market. This not only sets the stage for sustained growth and continued margin expansion, but it also showcases our superior strategy in action.

You just saw the growth in our focused water segments for the next 5 years. Let's take a look back for a minute at the previous 5 years, where we took the market growth in water, we compounded it through our model to create significant value, and that's what you see reflected in our EBITDA performance on the screen. This is our winning way in action, and it's what makes us the leading compounder of capital.

We are the leading player in the U.S. water infrastructure market, built on nearly 5 decades of operational excellence, strategic M&A growth and deep customer trust. Our platform is scaled and resilient, generating over $1.6 billion in annual revenue and $0.5 billion in EBITDA. This financial strength reflects not only our size but our ability to consistently execute and outperform.

What truly differentiates us, though, is our ability to deliver growth through performance and a connected portfolio at scale. Our businesses are strategically aligned. They share capabilities and they respond to market needs with agility. This combination of scale, connectivity and performance positions us to continue delivering industry-leading results, and to capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead.

But as we wrap up, it's clear. CRH's U.S. water platform is a market leader. We are positioned to lead well into the future, backed by proven results and a 47-year track record of outperformance. We win because of our scale, our superior strategy, and our connected platform. And we do this in large and fragmented markets with long runways for growth enabled by megatrends that drive those outsized investment needs.

This is our CRH Water story. And despite being here for 47 years, we're just getting started.

Hi. I am JP San Agustín, Head of Strategic Planning, Innovation [indiscernible] and I am here today with my good friend and colleague, Tim.

And I'm Tim Ortman, President of CRH America's Building Products.

We are excited to be here with you today to provide some insights on our growth capabilities and how we leverage them to build growth platforms at CRH. I have been working in the building materials industry for more than 30 years, and I have managed, or been involved, in the money transactions totaling more than $30 billion.

And I've been in the Building Materials business with CRH for over 25 years. During that time, I have worked on over 100 deals of all sizes, from small family-owned businesses to billion-dollar platforms, and seeing firsthand how CRH builds stronger and more valuable businesses.

Our M&A capabilities are a key component of our growth algorithm that Jim outlined in the main presentation. Each of the key enablers underpinning our winning way are clear contributors to our growth strategy. We're very deliberate and strategic in our approach to build our portfolio, aligned with growing megatrends. Our teams are set up for success. We have the experience and capabilities to execute. And finally, our collected portfolio provides more optionality for capital deployment, both organic and organic than any other of our competitors in the U.S. and Europe.

After more than 30 years in this industry, I've yet to see anyone much CRH's ability to consistently compound growth. We are truly the leading compounder of capital in the building materials industry.

When delivering on our proven growth capabilities, key for CRH is our optionality to grow through two acquisition levers. First, our ability to acquire family-owned businesses. Origination starts from the bottom-up at CRH with local teams across thousands of locations with strong community relationships, originating 80% of our acquisitions, underpinning over 1,200 value-focused acquisitions we've done in our history. We are the acquirer of choice, since we understand the value of maintaining the local brand and management teams.

Our second lever is to participate in the larger transactions, which are sourced through relationships with various stakeholders. We are deliberate, strategic and rigorous in review of these opportunities. And as CRH has proven, our financial strength allows us to be opportunistic as well when those times arise. We have proven capabilities in integration and synergy delivery, leveraging leading performance insights across our organization, while our scale and connected portfolio provide greater optionality for capital deployment.

We will continue to leverage the scale to our advantage, and we will be delivering as we continue to build our platforms. And you may ask how? By focusing on future market needs, we look to build positions of scale driving above-market growth, while making sure we are building a connected portfolio across our core platforms. Roads and water connected with aggregates and cementitious, our essential materials platforms. And we're also focused on scaling in high-growth geographies.

Now let me share some examples of our deliberate approach. The southeast of U.S., where we have built both a high-growth platform, platform of scale with a connected portfolio, in a high-growth market with growing infrastructure needs. And another one example of being deliberate is our Eastern Europe platform that has been built up over the last 30 years. Today, with $3.5 billion in revenues and leading market positions in attractive high-growth markets, such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia and [indiscernible], across all 4 core platforms.

And Australia is our most recent example. This is a market where we have been present at a small scale for the past 15 years. And we have transformed our Australian business from $20 million of EBITDA, into $200 million over the past 18 months. Through the right combination of local [ leading ] businesses, we have built a high-growth connected portfolio. From cementitious and aggregates into leading water businesses. We have been speaking about our superior strategy and being deliberate.

Now let us walk you through our journey on how we have built the #1 building materials platform in our industry in the state of Texas. Also, CRH's largest state both in revenue and EBITDA.

And as we all know, Texas is a massive, fast-growing economy with strong infrastructure funding on all 3 megatrend drivers, roads, water and reindustrialization. To bring the point home, here are a few stats.

Texas has the largest road network in the U.S. with over 700,000 lane miles. How significant water infrastructure needs given an expected 40% growth in population by 2050? And as a leader in manufacturing and exports with growth rates twice the national average. In a recent note, Texas is also a hotspot for data center projects, and our footprint puts us within 50 miles of every one of those.

And what his CRH done in Texas over the last decade? We have acquired more than 25 companies, each with a strong local presence, meaningful brands and leadership teams. This is a key differentiator for CRH. We keep those local brands. The power of these local brands is one of the most valuable assets we have is they have been built over decades and carry deep trust in the communities and with customers.

For many owners, the most important aspect considered in the sales process are future plans for their people. At CRH, acquired leadership teams aren't just retained. They access avenues for further growth and career development. You will hear from two of those rising CRH leaders today. Jake Parson at the roads breakout, and Jason Jackson on water. We then empower these local teams with CRH resources, capabilities and performance systems, delivering synergies and value across the connected platform.

In Texas, this approach has more than doubled our adjusted EBITDA margins, but it isn't just beneficial for CRH. By maintaining local brands and people, we also ensure a seamless transition for another critically important stakeholder, the customer. Our customer-centric approach was a key focus for us as we build out this growth platform in Texas, deliberately building a connected portfolio across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water, which JP will now unpack.

Firstly, let's look at our aggregates network, where today we produce over 10 million tons from over 20 aggregate sites across Texas. Our acquisition of the [indiscernible] quarry in 2014 laid the bedrock of our growth platform in Texas. Leveraging our leading performance system, our team has managed to grow our EBITDA by 7x since acquisition. Along with optimization of our distribution network to open access to the highest-growth MSAs in Texas. It remains the largest [ core operating ] in CRH today, with 7.5 million tons of annual production. And with approximately 2/3 of that used by our connected businesses and providing unique commercial and operational synergies.

Now on to our unique cementitious platform in Texas, where today, we are market leaders only 8 years ago, we were not even present. How did we do it?

Central to our strategy was the 2018 acquisition of [indiscernible], including the 1 million ton cement plant outside of [ Dallas ]. Our core [indiscernible] in the leading performance team will elaborate on how we drove value there.

Then we have the opportunity to further strengthen our network through the acquisition of the [ Hunter Assets ] near San Antonio. Adding 2.1 million ton cement plant and very important, a network of distribution terminals, adding to our [indiscernible] strong logistics network. And speaking of logistics, this connects with our import facilities in Houston, which manages more cementitious volumes than any other port in the U.S. Once again, where scale matters, we build it. And that is why today, we are uniquely positioned to serve the Texas [indiscernible].

Last but not least, last week, we announced the closing of [ Ecomaterials ] building on our existing platform and accelerating our [indiscernible] growth strategy. In Texas, [ Ecomaterial ] is highly complementary to our existing network, as you heard from Randy in the main presentation. These cementitious acquisitions connect not just with our strong aggregates position, but also with our roads and water platforms in Texas, which Tim will now walk us through.

CRH's roads business in Texas is the #1 asphalt producer in the state, and it's highly connected with our Materials Businesses, pulling through our own aggregates to drive margin and value creation. Nathan and Jake discussed further at our roads breakout today.

When looking at our acquisition strategy in this space, recent additions like [ Angel Brothers ] and [ East Texas Asphalt ] have expanded our capacity, extended our geographic reach and integrated seamlessly with our materials businesses, driving impressive margin expansion and growth. We have also built a strong water platform in Texas over the last few decades, where, again, we benefit from our connected aggregates and cementitious positions.

We took a big step forward with the 2022 acquisition of [ Rinker's Houston ] assets which added a state-of-the-art precast concrete facility producing critical water management products. Since acquisition, revenues have gone up 50% and EBITDA has doubled.

To further leverage our growth potential in Texas, we have also invested in a new capacity, opening a greenfield pipe and box [indiscernible] plant near Austin this year, strategically located to maximize synergies with both our [ Marvel Falls ] quarry and our Hunter cement plant also on the outskirts of Austin. Bringing this all together, when you map our assets across Texas, you see a fully connected portfolio, aggregates, cementitious, roads and water, all working together through a collection of strong local brands.

This interconnected portfolio creates significant customer cross-selling as we serve common customers across common projects, which has already driven significant value for CRH as the leading building materials business in Texas. And what are the results over the last decade? We have grown revenue in Texas to $3 billion, at an annualized rate of 16%, and EBITDA at 24%, and we are just getting started. We have a great opportunity for future growth and capital deployment as we build growth platforms, not just in Texas but right across our portfolio. Back to you, JP to talk us through the growth opportunities which lie ahead across CRH.

The build-out of our growth platforms is underpinned by our strong financial capacity. We expect to direct around of our $40 billion financial capacity, which is around $28 billion towards both growth CapEx and M&A. The U.S. building materials industry is still highly fragmented, as you can see on the right hand of the screen. There is a large room for consolidation in three of our core platforms, roads, aggregates on water. This means ample opportunity for CRH to drive value by continuing to be the leading consolidator in our industry.

Further, our connected portfolio provides greater avenues for growth and higher synergy potential. More than 85% of large independent aggregates businesses in North America have connected businesses, providing advantage for CRH for us as an acquirer of choice for these businesses. As you have seen, we had the financial capacity and room to further lead the consolidation of the industry.

You may ask, how do we manage it? As you can see the screen, we manage it by being very disciplined and thoughtful while we continue to build our growth platforms. On the left hand, you can see that, first, we prioritize high-growth markets with secular tailwinds, mainly linked to infrastructure. Then in the middle of the screen, we build a strong pipeline of attractive opportunities, a pipeline of businesses that have market-leading positions and strong brands. And then we multiply value creation, delivering leading performance and unique market synergies by collecting them to our portfolio. And that is why we can consistently deliver accretive returns and superior compounding of capital.

Now we will like to highlight some of the key messages you heard from us. First, we are very deliberate and strategic as we build our growth platforms. And our connected portfolio provides higher synergy potential and greater avenues for growth. Also, unique optionality for capital deployment across our core platforms, optionality to deploy capital that no one else has in our industry.

It is clear to see how we leverage CRH's growth algorithm to build platforms with scale that deliver significant value creation. We are both an acquirer of choice with family-owned companies in our industry and a buyer with the financial strength to add significant scalable businesses to our portfolio. We see lots of opportunities for growth, and we'll continue to execute at the highest level for our shareholders.

We have the financial capacity, the discipline and most importantly, the teams to continue to lead the consolidation of our industry. And at CRH, we are the best-in-class compounder of capital.

[Break]

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the leading performance breakout session. I'm Liz Haggerty and I [ meet ] our customer solutions organization in the Americas.

And I'm Peter Buckley, President of our International division.

As Jim mentioned earlier, CRH has delivered 11 consecutive years of margin expansion. And the engine behind that is our leading performance model, the operational core of the CRA winning way. It's embedded across our 4,000 locations and powered by our global capabilities. It's how we turn long-term growth drivers into superior results year after year.

This is not a theory. It's a proven business system with a track record of delivering industry-leading margins, returns and growth. And it gives us a long runway ahead. Over the next 15 minutes, we will show you how the model works as part of the winning way. Why it's fundamentally different and merely impossible for anyone else to replicate given our local expertise and global scale, and share with you some real-world examples of how it delivers results today, and unlocks tomorrow's opportunities.

Leading performance starts with culture, and at CRH that starts with safety. Safety is core to everything we do. Each employee completes over 20 hours of safety training annually. And it's with the same discipline that we approach every area of performance. Our model connects the local leadership in our 4,000 locations with our global expertise and resources. This is why we are fundamentally different. We supercharge local leadership with global capabilities. We don't just focus on one or the other. It's locally owned and globally enabled. With collaboration between our best-in-class performance teams and local leaders we identify new opportunities, implement key actions and measure results.

Let's take a look at how the process works and why it's so powerful. It starts with our annual strategic planning process. Every business and geography goes through a rigorous annual planning process. Playbooks are built on line of business, utilizing a collection of learnings and decades of experience on how to best run our operations. We set clear priorities. These are high-impact initiatives and strategic growth investments that will deliver our full potential ambitions.

Next, our local performance teams translate the priorities into actionable plans and they own them and are empowered to deliver them. We monitor KPIs daily, and we benchmark results against best-in-class metrics as part of our monthly operating reviews. This disciplined repeatable process is the operating engine of our winning way, turning strategy and a measurable performance.

Today, we are highlighting the performance excellence component of our leading performance model. Performance excellence focuses on three key things. First, revenue maximization, capitalizing on our strong local brands and empowering our commercial teams to drive value over volume. Second, margin expansion. It's our relentless operational excellence and cost management focus across our network. And third, scale and replication. Using CRH's global reach to accelerate and replicate best practices everywhere.

So what makes this better than anyone else's approach, collaboration and speed. We empower our local teams to own their businesses and through collaboration with our global team, we accelerate best practices across our network, enabling us to deliver higher performance.

So let's now dig into each of these drivers in a bit more detail. Revenue maximization is underpinned by the strength of our unique network of local brands. This is built on a track record of acquiring multigenerational family businesses with long-standing customer relationships. And we preserve these brands. We ensure they continue to be the trusted partners for our customers. Then through this uniquely connected portfolio, we have the breadth of products and services to support our customers through all phases of a construction project, partnering with them to solve even their most challenging problems.

Our global commercial framework and tools then wrap all this together and support local teams to identify the highest impact initiatives, all focused on delivering value over volume. Margin expansion is fueled by benchmarking relentlessly across our global business, identifying the best practices, and then rolling them out across our connected network of operations. This unique connectivity also allows us to streamline transport and logistics, reducing cost while improving service to our customers. We then accelerate this by investing strategically in projects across our operations and logistics networks that deliver higher returns and faster margin improvement.

This is where our model outperforms Others may have pockets of excellence, but as you can see, we can scale across hundreds of sites with speed and with precision. Finally, our global performance teams provide consistent challenge and expertise to each of our businesses. They work together with our local teams to create measurable improvement plans and then strategic investment projects to multiply the impact. Additionally, our global procurement capabilities enable local companies to benefit from our size and from our scale. And our innovation expertise from advanced materials to digital tools, solve problems faster and more effectively than anyone else.

So altogether, because we operate on a global scale, we can roll out proven solutions across hundreds of sites at speed and with far more customer insight given our local-led culture.

Now we'd like to share with you two great examples of the leading performance model in action. So let's start with [ MolzerCrushstone ]. We acquired [ Molzer ] in 2017. It's one of our largest aggregate focused businesses. Positioned along the Ohio River, it serves 5 states and over 800 miles of customers and diversified end markets. Since joining CRH, the leading performance model has transformed the business while retaining the important [indiscernible] brand, which has been trusted by customers since 1935. The results are impressive.

Since the acquisition, [indiscernible] has tripled cash gross profit per ton, doubled adjusted EBITDA, and expanded their margins by more than 1,500 basis points. So let's hear from Ken Molzer, a third-generation family member about what's been achieved and where they're headed next.

[Presentation]

What a great video. [indiscernible] really shows how local ownership and global enablement create value. Another standout example is our Americas cementitious platform, which truly started with the acquisition of [ Ash Grove ] in 2018. As part of our well-developed integration process, experts from across our global network supported the local teams in delivering the identified synergies. And I can speak personally to that. Relocating to the U.S. after the acquisition to lead [indiscernible] and allowing it to leverage CRH's global expertise.

We also embedded our performance excellence processes to drive continuous improvement. And today, we continue to accelerate progress by leveraging our unique global capabilities to enable the local teams to capitalize on further growth. This enables both our delivery of performance excellence and the opportunity to drive additional value by transforming the portfolio.

[ Ash Grove ] is a really great example of this. Since becoming part of the CRH family, we've delivered superior performance across all key financial metrics. We've made the business better, and we've built scale and a connected portfolio that nobody can replicate. And that's only the start. We continue to build on this through our strategic planning process, establishing an exciting pipeline of organic and inorganic growth opportunities, to increase our cementitious supply and to unlock the next phase of growth.

For example, we identified our geographic white space in Central Texas, and that led to the acquisition of the [ Hunter Cement ] plant. Here again, we applied our proven performance model to quickly unlock value. We also [indiscernible] [ Natural's ] portfolio, culminating in the recent acquisition of Eco [ Material Technologies ]. This puts CRH right at the forefront of the next-generation cement and concrete.

And it's not just M&A. We've applied the performance model to identify high-impact organic growth opportunities. And as an example, we're investing today in our [ Durkee ], Oregon plant to future-proof capacity in this high-growth region. This is the winning way in action, spotting opportunity, executing with discipline and scaling success, a full potential mindset that delivers industry-leading returns year after year.

As you've seen from [indiscernible] and Ash Grove, this is a tried and tested model, applied consistently across our 4,000 locations, it delivers continuous growth and margin expansion.

And it isn't a one-off strategy. it is the operating engine of the winning way, and that's why there's no structural ceiling on our margin expansion. We just keep raising the bar.

Welcome to the Roads breakout. I'm Nathan Creech, President of the Americas.

And I'm Jake Parson, President of the Americas Materials business in the Northeast.

And we are excited to take you inside one of the most dynamic and high-performing parts of CRH, our U.S. roads business. This is a market that is essential to daily life. It's backed by long-term funding and build recurring revenue and growth, and CRH is the clear leader.

We have spent decades building businesses around powerful long-term megatrends. In roads, those trends are first, population growth. More people means more vehicles, more traffic and more demand. Then aging infrastructure. Much of America's road network, it's past its design life. And finally, a growing demand for resilient modern transportation networks designed to handle heavier loads extreme weather and future mobility needs.

Our winning way, a proven framework for performance, growth and value creation turns these trends into sustained results. Today, we'll show you how that plays out in practice. Why Roads is such an attractive business, and how our connected model positions us to win?

Our roads business is far more than a distribution channel for aggregates. It's a platform that enables us to unlock value across the entire value chain. From neighborhood streets to highways, roads or the arteries of our communities, connecting people, enabling commerce and fueling growth. We are the largest road paver in the United States. Right now, our crews are active on about 1,500 jobs all across the country. That scale gives us unmatched insight into market dynamics and brings us closer to the end customer, enabling consistent delivery of outsized profits, cash and returns for shareholders.

And over the next few minutes, we're going to walk you through why Roads is such an attractive market. How we win in roads with our connected model and our unmatched scale? How we generate higher profits, cash and returns, thanks to our low capital intensity? And finally, the significant opportunities ahead.

First, let's be clear about what we do and what we don't do. We are not a general civil contractor. We are the nation's largest asphalt producer and road paver. Operating a connected business that starts with aggregates, then to asphalt manufacturing and ends with high-quality paving services. This focus allows us to be the best at what we do. Delivering industry-leading performance, innovation and scale.

And it's clearly a large market. The total addressable market for roads is $145 billion annually, covering both new construction and maintenance on the more than 9 million lane miles of U.S. roads. That installed base, it's built in long-term driver for our materials, our products and our services.

Now this is a market with recurring demand and growing funding, 90% of our road paving revenue comes from public sector customers, a very reliable and resilient base. Over the last 20 years, the market has grown 5% annually. This growth rate has stepped up to 8% over the last 5 years with federal initiatives like IIJA and increased state funding. More than 60% of IIJA highway funding is still to be deployed, and state transportation budgets for 2026 are expected to rise 6% year-on-year.

And funding for roads, it's a bipartisan priority. This is not a political issue. It's an American one. Investment in roads consistently has support across the aisle, reinforcing the long-term strength of this segment. The need is only growing. In fact, it's becoming more urgent.

The U.S. road network, it's rated D+ by the American Society of Civil Engineers. There's a funding requirement of over [ $2.2 trillion ] over the next decade. Add on the fact that roads require resurfacing and major maintenance every 4 to 6 years. This creates a recurring revenue stream for our materials, our products and our services. And we have a 90% plus repeat customer rate, proof that the trust we built and the stickiness we have with our customers.

Now this isn't just a large and growing market. It's also low-risk and highly repeatable. Our work is spread across 4,000 jobs annually, with typical project durations of 90 to 120 days. 90% of our projects are valued under $2 million, meaning we're not dependent on a few large projects. And around 60% of our annual work is driven by repair and maintenance demand.

This diversification protects our business and ensures consistent cash generation. These fundamentals, the large addressable market, strong funding backdrop and distributed risk combined with recurring revenue characteristics make Roads a highly attractive business to be in.

Now let's talk about our leadership in roads. Our fully connected roads business, excluding third-party asphalt sales, generates $6.4 billion in annual revenue. We are active in asphalt production and paving in 43 states, serving diverse end markets. In fact, 2/3 of the U.S. population lives within a 50-mile service radius of a CRH asphalt plant, giving us unmatched reach.

But where we choose to participate in the roads business? It's a deliberate strategic decision guided by our ability to establish a leading position, leverage our connected model and benefit from attractive market fundamentals.

Regional dynamics also create recurring demand. In the Northeast and Midwest [indiscernible] cycles and dense road networks drive frequent maintenance requirements. And in the South and West, population growth and rising traffic volumes, fuel expansion. Wherever we operate, we always aim to be the local market leader.

At CRH, we are the largest, most connected road paver in the U.S. To match our scale, you need to add the next 5 players together. In the roads business, scale matters, and we have more than anyone else.

Now our connected business model creates value across the entire roads value chain. CRH is North America's leading producer of aggregates, with more than 800 locations. The vast majority of the aggregates that we use across our roads business comes from a CRH location. Our unrivaled liquid asphalt network, combined with our winter fill program, provides up to 50% of our annual liquid needs, improving margins, ensuring quality and securing supply.

The next step is hot mix asphalt production where we operate approximately 450 asphalt manufacturing plants. And finally, the last step in the value chain is our 800 paving crews. We lay 55% of the asphalt we produce, providing proximity to end customers. Additionally, we have long-standing external asphalt customers with 2/3 of them buying additional CRH products, creating a strong multiplier effect across the portfolio.

Our connected model creates value at each stage, and the low fixed cost position gives us incredible flexibility. By owning and optimizing each link, we maximize yield, mitigate risk, and unlock margin opportunities others can't match.

Now our Roads portfolio is deeply connected to the rest of CRH. Aggregates and cementitious materials form the foundation layers, providing strength and durability to the finished road. Multiple asphalt layers are engineered for specific needs such as load bearing, noise reduction, permeability and even skid resistance. And our reach, it goes far beyond the pavement, 20% of cementitious materials in the U.S. is used in the road envelope, whether that's in road basis, concrete structures like bridges and sidewalks, or precast elements.

Now roads also carry underground infrastructure such as water, energy and communications. In fact, 85% of our Infrastructure Solutions products are installed within the road right of way.

Our scale also enables best-in-class performance. At the heart of it all, at CRH, we make businesses better by embedding a culture of continuous improvement, operational excellence and value creation across everything that we do. And we harness our scale to deliver best-in-class performance, safely boosting productivity and unlocking the full potential of our business.

We innovate locally and scale nationally. Our ability to quickly deploy these solutions across diverse geographies, markets and customer segments provides a competitive edge. We have 90 state of-of-the-art labs nationwide focusing on solving local challenges for local customers.

A great example of this is the work we do with recycled asphalt pavement, or wrap. We work with our customers and regulators to reduce the amount of virgin material we use. Each year, we recycle 11.5 million tons of asphalt from our own paving jobs back into our asphalt mix. To put that into context, close to 25% of our total asphalt is recycled content, helping us to solve challenges for customers, reduce waste and expand margins. This is a great example of the CRH winning way in action. Continuous improvement, leading to operational excellence and value creation.

So far, we've talked about attractive markets, our connected model and how we're leveraging our unrivaled scale. It's the combination of these factors that drives the 6x cash gross profit compared to third-party aggregate sales. From the rock to the finish road, we're adding value at each step of the chain and turning $10 into $60 of value. But our cash gross profit is only one aspect of our leading financial performance. It's important to note that our roads business is consistently growing year-on-year and delivering margins in the high teens.

Margins are just one part of what makes this business so attractive. As we move from Rock to Road, asset intensity drops, and the cash conversion ratio increases. So not only do we have 6x more cash gross profit, but we do it while also increasing our returns performance. Our Connected Roads business delivers a 300 basis point uplift in returns compared to supplying aggregates alone. Combined with our scale, this is what enables us to reinvest in M&A and growth CapEx, while also delivering sustainable shareholder returns.

Now let's turn to growth. Roads has been and continues to be a key focus for CRH's acquisition strategy. In the last decade, we've invested $2.7 billion in 50 different roads transactions, adding 15 million tons of asphalt capacity, enough to be the #2 player behind CRH, if it was a stand-alone company.

As you can see on the map, our acquisitions are spread across the United States, highlighting the breadth of our reach and the strength of our local networks. Roads are also closely linked to our aggregates business. We've added 31 million tons of annual aggregates production through these same roads acquisitions. Simply put, we are the preferred acquirer of connected businesses at very attractive multiples when compared to pure-play aggregate deals alone.

But what really sets us apart is our M&A pipeline and how we source these opportunities. Approximately 80% of our deals, they come through our local leadership teams and their long-standing relationships that they've built over years of trust and collaboration. The market, it remains highly fragmented, with 74% of the hot mix asphalt industry still privately held.

Due to our nationwide profile, this fragmentation creates a rich pipeline for bolt-on acquisitions which offers lower risk and even higher synergy potential. With our market coverage, our scale advantages, leadership position, connected model and the strength of our pipeline, we have clear visibility, and confidence in our continued M&A growth going forward.

Now let's recap. Roads is a large, growing, recurring revenue market with long-term funding support. We are the industry leader with a connected model and an unmatched scale equal to the next 5 players combined. Our lower capital intensity delivers leading margins, high returns and is 6x more profitable than selling aggregates alone. And 3/4 of the market is still privately owned, giving us a significant runway for growth.

Now as you can see, roads, it's an important part of our connected portfolio. We've built it over decades and designed it to deliver growth, returns and long-term value creation. With a strong M&A pipeline, there's still plenty of opportunity ahead. So on behalf of Jake and myself, it's been a pleasure sharing with you the story of our roads business.

Welcome back, everybody. I hope you really enjoyed the breakout sessions this morning, learning more about our leading positions in road and roads and in water and our unique growth capabilities and our leading performance systems that ensure that we will continue to deliver consistent long-term growth and shareholder value creation.

Well, what I want to talk about now before we move on to Q&A is -- really, I guess, focus a bit more on who we are, right, as an organization and why we win and how we continuously outperform our peers and deliver as a leading compounder of capital. One of the breakout groups this morning focused on performance systems, right? And all companies, all leading companies have leading performance systems. But what really differentiate our performance system is the rigor around it, right? The resilience around it and the fact that we're going to sail it globally across 4,000 locations. We talked about it earlier, our leading local brands.

We power locally. We empower our local management teams and then we globally enable with our performance systems. And let's start performance system, combined with our culture, with our relentless focus year in, year out on performance improvement, which really differentiates CRH. But as I said, all companies have performance systems. But what I believe as CEO, what's going to differentiate us, CRH in the next 5 to 10 years, and indeed, the industry is who are successful at deploying capital. And deploying capital at scale over the next 5 to 10 years.

And I think that will be the true differentiator in our industry. And that's what really differentiates CRH. We have unrivaled capabilities, and we have a proven track record, we've been able to deploy capital at scale. And I hope today, after the breakout groups, you get a sense for the optionality we have where we're going to deploy that capital. And that optionality combined with our rigor and discipline is what really enables us to consistently outperform. That, together with our connected portfolio, which are positioned across some of the highest growth markets, whether that's the south or the west of the U.S., whether that's Central Eastern Europe or Australia. And the fact that the markets that we operate today are very fragmented. The top 10 producers of aggregates in the U.S. account for about 35% of production. You see a very similar ratio across when you go into roads, when you go into water. So we still operate in a very fragmented space.

Over the past 5 years, and you would have seen this in our proven growth capabilities breakout, we have developed the expertise and the discipline to identify, to in wire and to integrate businesses at scale. Once to integrate it, we can then accelerate synergy deliveries through our winning way. And everything we do as an organization is really underpinned by a relentless focus almost an obsession on performance and on shareholder value creation combined with our financial control and discipline. We CRH are a company that's built for growth and powered by performance. And that's what makes us a true industrial leader and a comparator of capital. And it's also why CRH is a must-own stock in every portfolio.

Now we're going to move on to Q&A. I'm going to ask Randy and Nancy to join us, please for the Q&A session.

Also joined by Tom Holmes, our Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, Tom.

Well, hello, everyone. It has been a really, really great day so far, but we're not done yet. For those of you in the room, if you have a question for Jim, Nancy or Randy. [Operator Instructions] So, with that, we'll start here in the room. Adam, maybe we'll start with you. Thank you.

Adam Seiden of Barclays. Jim, I just wanted to pick up on the deploying capital that you were just talking about, clearly a strong track record and speaking some more to come today. So in the revenue and the margin targets that you spoke to, could you parse out what portion of that is organic versus inorganic?

Yes. Adam, Yes, we guided this morning to -- between 7% and 9% top line growth, revenue growth over the period. There's really kind of 2 -- call them power engines or engine the power, which are driving that. One is clearly organic. I think today, you've got a feel in terms of the megatrends that we're playing in, whether that's roads, water or reindustrialization. That, together really with our our leading local positions. We talked a lot about the scale of the business here this morning and the number of locations we have. It's -- in each of those locations we have, the 2,000 across the U.S., we try to have #1 and #2 positions in the market. right? So we're leveraging local brands with leadership positions in higher growth markets and in markets which are supported and platforms supported by megatrends.

That's the organic driver behind that. If you look at the inorganic we talked at [ Lenta ] this morning about our proven growth this year to date, we've done 20 deals. Last year, we did 40 deals. We have a regular rhythm because, again, of the connected local nature of the business that power that kind of growth engine on bolt-on M&As, which gives us at the start of every year a fair bit of predictability in terms of small bolt-on deals, almost organic like in the regular side of the bolt-on deals. So it's going to split between organic and inorganic. I think it's reasonable to assume that it's probably going to split equally, broadly between them over that period of time.

Maybe Anthony, 5 rows from the back here, please, in the center.

Anthony Pettinari from Citi. In the release this morning, you reiterated the full year '25 guide, I think, not including ECO. And I'm just wondering if you can talk about sort of the puts and takes with your full year guidance and just sort of confidence level in terms of reiterating here?

I might ask Nancy maybe just comment on some of the specific puts and takes. But yes, we guided between -- reaffirmed our guidance between $7.5 billion and $7.7 billion EBITDA. That again is, as I said earlier, a record year 2024 for us. But what gives us the confidence around that today is what we see in current trading and also the backlogs at to the end of the year from that perspective. But -- at the midpoint, it's another year of double-digit growth. But maybe, Nancy, do you want to comment on some of the puts and takes?

Yes. You did hit it right. ECO is not included in the guidance that it's just closed. And so we're absorbing and integrating right now. And you'll hear from us in November when we do our third quarter earnings call, we will update guidance and provide more information around the Eco transaction at that time.

Kathryn Thompson, Thompson Research Group. A lot of great today, but I might go back to your legacy business, which is asphalt and aggregates. Many players in the industry view asphalts and instruction as a pass-through for aggregates whereas CRH has maintained a position a little bit different position, either how are you different? Why are you thinking that way? Or what are others perhaps not seeing that you see in the strategy?

Yes. Thanks, Kathryn. And I'll be introduced, but maybe ask Randy and Nathan's here as well in the front row, who gave the -- who led the presentation with Jake on the roads. I said it earlier as well. I mean over the last 2 years, since we listed here, most investors I sit down with our new investors say they want to talk about our ag position, our #1 [indiscernible] position in the U.S. tell me about the scale of that, the amount of reserves you own. And that's a fantastic business, right? But what I often say back what I really want to talk about is the Roads business. And I hope after we all have a better understanding why on that model outside, I think when you look at it, that's what brings the CRH strategy to life. You can see the connected nature between roads, between cementitious -- aggregate, cementitious, roads and water all coming together in that model.

For me, why do I like it? Because on the first of January every year, the most predictable revenue stream we have in CRH is our roads revenue. It's 90% publicly funded. And for decades in CRH, decades and generations of management, we've talked about the annuity-like revenue stream on our road paving business in the U.S. But maybe, Randy, do you want to talk about I won't I'll give Nathan all the good stuff that you can talk about.

He executes it day in and day out, but the -- I think to your point, I mean, it's the funding backdrop. We know what it is clarity in around that you saw the scale and size of our position. But if you compare that to what is yet to be done in terms of the opportunity in that fragmented space to continue that consolidation. I think that's impressive as well. I think Nathan and Jake shared a stat, I think it was 74% of the asphalt produced today is still in the hands of private owners. And of that 74%, 85% of those companies are connected in some way, shape or form, primarily to aggregate or to sand and gravel. So I think it's the size and scale and the longevity and the support from funding, but it's also the opportunity for us to continue to run our playbook in regards to M&A activity. But Nathan?

Yes. Thanks, Randy. What I'd add on to that probably is the low capital intensity. When you look at the whole rocked the road, and we talked about [indiscernible] Jake referred to it that ratio and that capital intensity goes down that cash conversion goes up. It's also a big benefit for us that it brings us close to that end customer. And we're able to take that information and use it across all of our businesses to give us better into what's going on.

And then you look at the risk profile, we talked about it, 4,000 jobs a year spread over in 43 states. Not only do you have that risk lower, but you also distribute it over a lot of projects. So when you combine all of that together, you put in the entrepreneurial culture that Jim talked about in being that really gives us that ability to generate that 6x more cash gross profit per ton than just selling ags alone. And on top of that, that lower asset intensity gives us that 300 bps improvement in ROIC when you look at that that whole value chain together. So that connected part of our business and how it interacts with the other parts really gives us an advantage there, which makes it incredibly attractive. So we can take that $10. And if you focus just on [indiscernible] the delivering that $10 is where you're focused, but we're focused on the whole roads and that's where we deliver that $60. And that's what at the core is makes it really attractive for us.

We got Keith here, just taking on capable a moment.

Sorry. Keith Hughes Truist, you talked about the presentation, capital allocation, M&A, a big part of that. Could you just talk about what geography? And even within that geography, it seems like it would be a lot of downstream acquisitions you could do just given the targets. Is that what we expect to see in the next 5 years?

Yes. Thanks, Keith. I'll take it first, maybe I'll ask Nancy to maybe to come in maybe on some of the growth CapEx as well at the end of it, okay? But Yes. In terms of geographies, if you think back to the May presentation, you should expect us really to continue broadly allocating capital where we have to date, right? So 75% to kind of high 70% of our EBITDA is coming out of the U.S., 25% at international, that won't change broadly through that period of time. Within that, it should be in higher growth markets. So the south of the West, the U.S., Central Eastern Europe and into Australia, too. But then within that case, when you dig down again, it's in -- you think of the 4 platforms that we have built out, leading platforms coast-to-coast across the U.S., right, because that's going to be -- again, you should expect it in aggregates.

We're #1 in aggregates. That's not going to change, right? We will invest in aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. And where we have done best is all today, I think Randy presented on Texas, right? What we have done best into deploying capital when we look back is in faster-growing parts of our portfolio. In in connected, you say downstream, I'd say, connected businesses, right? And in geographic -- in faster growing regions like Texas population with sectoral tailwinds, but water roads. And then where we have existing businesses. So if we have an aggregate quarry like [ Marlboro ] Falls our cement business in Texas, that's where we can really deploy capital at scale at interesting entry multiples and accelerate really early synergy delivery. And a lot of that has also been driving the growth in the last 3 to 5 years, and you should continue to expect that going forward. May be Nancy will add anything?

Exactly what Jim said, and we talked about the opportunity sets in the markets where we operate, we have such as the ability to see deep into the market. So we can identify both M&A and then the growth CapEx. And what you're really seeing is those are high-returning low risk because we know what is needed in that market and those opportunities tend to be more accretive. And so what you're really seeing is our discipline and our stewardship around capital allocation, that's where that 70% is going -- and tons of opportunity for us there. So you'll see that discipline. You'll see that value-focused approach, but we will continue to deploy capital as we have.

We're going to dip in for one moment in some of the webcast questions, picking up on Keith's point there because -- there's a lot of overlap, a lot of focus actually on M&A, Jim. I combine a few of them here. How would you characterize the M&A pipeline? Are there -- are there enough opportunities out there to deploy over $20 billion on M&A? And just a final one on that thread. Do you need to move away from traditional bolt-ons towards larger acquisitions?

I mean the pipeline, I would say, firstly, 3 parts of Tom. Pipeline is good, right? We've done 20 deals. We only closed the ecomaterials last week. I think we're going to do good momentum into the end of this year. right, in terms of deal flow. Again, that all comes back to the optionality we have in terms of deploying capital. In terms of -- is that can we spend that we talk about $40 billion, 70% of the growth side, can we spend it? Yes, we can. It comes back to kind of the differentiated and superior strategy that we have to that connected portfolio. we have optionality of where deployed, right? And the -- I talked about it earlier, the very fragmented nature of the 4 platforms that we operate in. About scale, typically, most of our deals small bolt-on deals. We this year, right? But from time to time, we have stepped out, right? We did the [ Asco dev ] in 2018, we did the [ Far Holston ] deal in 2016. And what those -- when we've done those, I'd say maybe 2 or 3 things about it. we have taken our leverage up over 2x from time to time, but with a very clear commitment that we've taken it back down.

And I think that's been very deliberate, and we've actioned that each time. But what those bigger deals do from time to time like [ Asgrow ] is that we said it's -- Randy talked about it earlier. It's possibly one of the best deals we ever did in CRH, right? But what it really did from our perspective was fill the bolt-on M&A pipeline for 6 to 12 years in new geographic regions that we weren't -- so that can be the attractiveness of a step-out deal as well, right, to bring in more connected businesses. And that's still happening. We're still getting momentum out of some of those new geographies at this stage.

I'll just take one more from the webcast for now. We'll come back into the room then. An interesting one here, how important is innovation and technology in your business? And to what extent is it a differentiator for CRH?

I'll take that, maybe Randy, you can come back on this. But it's a key part, Tom. We are the leading global building materials company. So you would expect us as shareholders should expect us that we get access to all the leading process technology from all the we apply that at scale, right? So that's what we do, and we keep very much abreast of that from that side perspective. If you go back actually, what, 3 years ago, we set up an innovation on venture info in CRH, and it's up and running 3 years at this stage. Juan Pablo has been running that with his team. it's been fascinating, right?

I mean to give you some kind of look into that you take, we've run 3 open global challenges at this stage in water, in roads and in cementitious products. We've had over 100 applicants of start-up by deals, whether that's products, whether that's processes, right? So they've been hugely successful. And what that has done for us is to make sure that we are keeping abreast and getting a very early looking what's happening in some of the most innovative, creative start-up businesses from both a product and a process perspective. Now those open challenges have led to us taking small start-up positions or investments in start-up companies to make sure that [indiscernible] competitions, we assess them, we decide whether we invest in a month from that perspective, we take small stake. So it's hugely important, Tom. I think it's been an excellent way to make sure that we are right on the colin of what's happening both from a product and a process perspective. But, Randy, do you want to?

Yes. I mean -- and we called out 3 examples for sure. But for us -- and I think just building on what you said, that early look in partnering with world-class companies -- we can't be great at everything. So we need the assistance of others to really help dive deeper in terms of what those underlying trends are. And I think what we've got a heck of a lot better with over the last decade is actually adopting whatever those technologies are and then scaling them very rapidly. We talked about the 3 examples today. And they're all about the kind of efficiency or getting closer to the customer, recurring revenue, things along those lines. We've been in this for some period of time.

In our cement operations, we've used AI for almost 8 years now in terms of really co-piloting side by side in terms of driving efficiencies in each one of our kilns. So that's kind of been embedded into how we look at improving underlying businesses. And even outside of that, the technologies that we talked about -- [indiscernible] in fact, we're building, we're going to commission a new cement plant in lumber in France in 2026. And what we're going to drive there certainly is underlying efficiencies will then be probably from a ecological standpoint, one of the most carbon positive operations in all of your. It's going to be super modern plant that helps meet the underlying needs of of decarbonization across that marketplace, but that's leveraging really the latest technology. So it's not only identification of it, but then it's applying it very quickly.

Okay. So I just come back in the room here, Adrian, please at the front.

Thank you, Tom. Jim, on the local brand strategy, there's been a lot of highlights on from all of you on that. Two things. One, why is this important for your customers and for CRH? And the second one is -- what are the advantages of operating that way because most people don't do it that way -- I mean you can see the advantages, but are there any disadvantages that you have seen or challenges by having this strategy?

Yes, listen, it is key to who we are, right? We talked about it over 200 brands in the U.S. and 300 across the whole of CRH. It's a real differentiator for us, right? And as I said earlier in the main presentation, construction is local at the end of the day, right? We talk about IIJA, et cetera, but it all comes down to local projects, right? And having that local brand, that loyalty it's hugely important also in terms of retaining talent, right? Because we're very significant employers that rural from that perspective. What it does, in addition to customer loyalty and awareness, I think is that it also helps us fill that M&A pipeline.

In terms of if it's disadvantaged, maybe Randy I'll come in and ask you, you can build on it. But there's very little Adrian from it, right? I mean I think -- it's one of the reasons why if you're running one of these local businesses, we want you to feel you run it like an entrepreneur. You use a mandate to grow your business. to sweat your balance sheet, sell assets, buy assets. Now we have a rigorous investment appraisal process around that, supporting that. And of course, you leverage the best global practices around OpEx comic, procurement, et cetera, right, at a platform level. So you get all the benefits of global, but we have power at a local level. Now I think to your point, if you didn't have those kind of safety guards around us that we do have, it could, of course. But this is the strategy that we talked about which has been refined and nurtured over decades, and I think we have the balance of it right. But it's something that it's something we talk a lot about. How do we keep that balance, right, to make sure that we really empower locally but doing a complete alignment. And yes, but I think, as I said, after decades out, and I think we have that balance right, Randy you want to add?

I think there's there's Jim, to your point -- so it's -- I always say it's a 50-mile radius around any plant it's kind of where you got to be great. Part of being great is having the license to operate in those markets. And typically, I'd say only in every case, I've an acquired company, they've had multiple decades and generational exposure in those markets to create a license to operate. People know who the those brands are. They support the brands. There's a there's a positive heritage in history that the communities as a whole align around. So that gives us the opportunity to do things probably uniquely in terms of expansion of sites or targeting other areas because that brand is known. And the leaders I think we're super fortunate because we've created the right kind of culture where the leaders of those acquired businesses, for the most part, want to stay and see their dreams continue to be fulfilled. Right? We enable capital to actually continue that growth trajectory. We have careers for the families, and we rely on that that part of the business to create a talent pool that we can deploy in a lot of different places. I think the local brands as well from a purely a customer standpoint, give a tremendous amount of advantage. If you're taking care of that local brand taking care of that customer on the quality issues or the unique circumstances that each project bring price doesn't come into the equation. And that's a very important enabler for us to be able to drive value and have those kind of relationships where the quality of the end product is more important than the piece parts of the constituency. And I think the other -- and Jim mentioned the M&A, I mean that's where it happens, right? Majority of those M&A opportunities happen because there's been a history of relationships in those markets. And if you look at the deals that we've been able to even last year and -- well, our history, quite frankly, the lion's share of deals that we do are just between ourselves and the owners of that business. It's not a public process. I think that's a massive advantage.

I like to build a [indiscernible] Randy and I both came up through the business. We ran some of these local -- it is hugely empowering. To have to be out there looking for opportunities to grow your business, right? And then the other, when you come to the M&A side of it, and it's not easy to sell a family business. When you take that decision, if you're going to retain the brand, some of -- 2 of our presenters here this morning came from family businesses, right, that we bought and Jason, right, over the last 2 to 3 decades, right? We can offer couriers as well. So that kind of local empowerment of a brand level. And I think a lot of small and midsized family businesses respect the local CRH company because it's been more entrepreneurial, and that helps us in terms of exclusivity on a lot of deals.

Mike very back on there, please.

Thank you, Tom. Good morning, and thank you for all the information today. I was quite intrigued in the breakout sessions about what you do in the water business. I thought that was very enlightening today. and it certainly is a priority platform for you, given what you've highlighted today. And -- can you size the growth opportunity? How big can that business be for CRH in your planning period and even beyond that?

Sure, absolutely. Maybe -- and again, we have Jason here on the front row, who really run that business for the last 5 years. So yes, it's actually the first business we stepped into in the U.S. in 1978, out in Utah was in the water product space. And it's really an area you can see in terms of growth. In the last 5 years, I think the CAGR EBITDA in that business has been 32% for CRH has been really a fast-growing business. I mean I often joke or Jason if he gave me one part of CRH, I run that one because it's a business with just [indiscernible]. right? We've got too much or too little water everywhere at the moment and look at the the grading they give in terms of the U.S. water infrastructure. It's a lot of past most of it gets a derating. So it's something where we certainly think, and I think it's actually brought to life again on the model outside what we do in water product and the water infrastructure is put in place in a road environment. So you can see the entirely connected nature of it. right, from that perspective. But maybe, Jason, do you want to talk about the growth potential and the size of the market, maybe?

Yes, happy to do that. Thank you, Jim. I think when we try to frame up the growth opportunity across the water space, it really comes down to a few key elements a lot of what we highlighted in the breakout. So first and foremost, it's our strategic positioning in those 2 foundational elements where size and scale really matters. And those 2 areas are where we're seeing the benefit from those secular twins and the big investment dollars that Jim highlighted around kind of the aging nature of our water infrastructure Secondly, it's being advantage of those -- that size and that scale and that investment through our national footprint and how we are structured with our connected portfolio, closely tied to our [ ags ] business closely tied to our roads business and closely tied to our cementitious business. And then lastly, I would highlight something we -- we just move them out with another question, which is the true fragmented nature of the space in which we operate. And the runway for growth, the number of companies around there from an M&A standpoint that are privately owned, privately held provides optionality for us to continue to grow well in the future. And I think it's not worth skipping, but we have a nearly 5 decade head start on building those relationships and those connectivity where we are oftentimes the first call that those owners make.

Colin here actually in the second row, please.

Cameron Dave. Thank you for those this morning -- just asking on the significant rerating that the stock has had in the last couple of years in particular, I guess there's still a gap to those U.S. pure-play peers -- just wondering what the company thinks you can get to ultimately? And what are the steps that are going to be along the way there?

Yes, okay, Carlo. Yes. we're 2 years to the month since we listed on the New York Stock Exchange. And in some ways, when you look at -- it was always the right listing place for CRH, right? We're the largest U.S. builders company, right, with the #1 player in infrastructure and we're broadly the same size as the next 3 listed peers combined, right? So to some extent, just sort as a bit of an anomaly. We should have been listed from that perspective. So -- but what it is -- we're 55 years as a company. We talked a lot about that today, right? But we're really 2 years into a listing, right? So it's not -- for me and for all of us as a leadership team, it has been a learning exercise, right?

It was not an event. It's a process in terms of delisting, and we're still in relatively the early stages of that process, right? Now my job as CEO, and that's what today's event is actually a part of that. It's about trying to explain and look under the hood of what CRH is and what really delivers -- how -- based on this year's guidance, how do we get 12 consecutive years of margin increase. What drives that TSR over any period you take right? So it's been -- for us, and today's event, I said is key to that, to start to share that and to explain the CRH growth algorithm and then the CRH winning way, which drives that consistent outperformance, right?

Now based on a record and what we believe in terms of going forward in terms of the $40 billion capacity and the model we have and the ability to deploy capital at scale I think over time, the market and every quarter we put under our belt matters. It's palatable. Every quarter you put on your belt here matters, right? And I think over time, the U.S. investment community will come to appreciate the resilience, the consistency, the outperformance -- if you go back to 2024, Randy called it our [ AMA ] business, right? It's 55% of our profits. It was up 22% in 2024. The industry was flat. There's a reason that happens on right? It just doesn't happen by accent from that perspective, right? You go back to 2022, we were the only business in 2022 to push margins on. Everybody else went backwards. That is the resilience, the consistency of the model and that's my job as CEO and the team to really explain that. And today is a very good step from that perspective.

Mike fourth from the front, please.

Mike Feniger from Bank of America. You guys talked a lot, obviously, we hear about the pure plays, everyone's trying to get for aggregate assets right now. When you think about your M&A firepower and how you're thinking about it differently? Are we strictly being downstream? Are we thinking more on the water side is something that we could see much more of in the next few years? And also just to tag on to this, you guys haven't been afraid to do divestments and you not like some businesses weren't really part of the portfolio. I'm just kind of curious how we should think about that maybe going forward in the next 5 years as well?

Yes. I think it's a really good question. And I said it earlier in the wrap-up, I think what's going to distinguish companies in our space in the next 5 years is the ability and the success of deploying capital at scale. That's what gives us the confidence because you've got to look at feel of it today about the muscle we have, have been able to do that. We haven't just built one platform. We've built 4 platforms coast-to-coast to lose U.S., right, 4 connected platforms. which that model outside brings it to life, right? The 4 connected platforms based around local leading brands. So where we will continue to grow, we will continue to grow. As I said, it's not just going to be in the water or the road space.

No, we will continue to invest in [indiscernible]. We continue to invest in cementitious. I think Randy called it out in the recent earnings call. If you look at the asphalt acquisitions in the last decade, we've added 31 million tonnes of [ aggregate ] as well. Most family businesses in the U.S. look an awful lot more like us than they do maybe some of our peers because they figure this out. It makes much better sense to run a quarry with a concrete plant or an asphalt plant to repaving crew because you maximize your efficiency, you're closer to the customer, all the benefits we talk about the connected portfolio. So it's that and also -- if you look at our capital intensity as a percentage of revenue, it's one of the lowest. There's a reason for that. And when we can predict, as said at the start, if you look at our road business, it gives us objectively the most predictable revenue stream on the first of January in the U.S. every year because it's a publicly funded, 90% of it is publicly funded and you've got a multiyear visibility from that perspective. So when you take the predictability, the resilience the recurring nature of the revenue, the lower capital intensity, right? That's what drives the outperformance on the cash returns and the overall return on capital. And you should continue to do -- expect us to allocate capital across the 4 platforms.

We're just slightly over time here, but maybe before we wrap, I mean, is there anything that you'd like to leave us with? Anything you want us all to remember from today.

Yes. Listen, firstly, I hope everybody had a fantastic morning and appreciate it, and I are leaving here today with a better understanding of CRH. We certainly enjoy the opportunity of putting this together over the last number of months and setting it out. I think Thomas it's 3 things I'd like to say and people to take away. Remember, CRH, we're the #1 infrastructure play in North America. Our superior strategy, our unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of leading brands really positions us to execute unrivaled growth opportunities that we see coming from the mega trends -- we talked about the [ $40 billion ] financial capacity we have as an organization. We have that together with the proven growth capabilities that we talked about under the breakout groups and the experience leadership team I hope we get an opportunity to meet them over lunch.

There's over 200 years of industry experience here. It's not one by one person. It's run by a team here in CRH. And there is nobody in this industry who is better placed than CRH to deploy capital at scale over the next 5 years. And I think that's going to be a key differentiator. CRH is a leading industrial company. right? All the financial metrics, the performance, the record, we are a leading industrial company, a true compounder of capital, a compounder of growth and a compounder of shareholder value.

So I think for those, we're going to wrap up, I think, now for those on the webcast, I'd just like to thank you all for being with us, and we look forward to catching up with you all again soon as part of our Q3 earnings in early November. I think they're going to sign off on the webcast now. But for everybody here in the room, we really hope that you can join us and stay with us and get a [indiscernible].