CRH PLC (CRH) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

CRH PLC (NYSE: CRH) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Nov. 06, 2025

Corporate Participants:

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Randy Lake — COO

Tom Holmes — Head of Investor Relations.

Nancy Buese — Chief Financial Officer

Presentation:

operator

SA.

operator

Sam, then the number one on your telephone keypad add and if you would like to withdraw your question, it’s star followed by the number one again. At this time I’d like to turn the conference over to Jim Minturn, CRH Chief Executive Officer to begin the conference. Please go ahead sir.

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Hello everyone, Jim Minturn 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 Beazey, 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.

Tom Holmes — Head of Investor Relations.

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 will now hand you back to Jim, Nancy and Randy.

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

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 over 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 raise 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 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 in Q3 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, integrate at 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 represent 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 am 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 six 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 three large and growing megatrends Transportation, water and RE industrialization 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 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 megatrends. 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.

Randy Lake — COO

Thanks Jim. Hello everyone. Turning to slide 8 and first to America’s Material 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 and re industrialization, particularly in large scale manufacturing and data centers. I’m also pleased to see continued strength in our margin at approximately 28% reflecting strong cost discipline and operational efficiency across our business. So overall a strong performance for America’s material 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 America’s 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 which is a key focus for our business.

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’ve strategically positioned our business and our customer offering. By leveraging our unmatched scale and connected portfolio, we’re able to deliver more value to our customers and generate higher profits, cash and returns on these types of projects in our outdoor living business where we continue to experience resilient underlying demand and residential repair and remodel activity. Q3 revenues were 2% ahead of the prior year for America’s Building Solutions. Overall total revenue growth of 2% translated into a 22% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 380 basis points of margin expansion reflecting the benefits of ongoing business and asset optimization initiatives including the disposal of certain land assets across our operations.

Moving to International Solutions on Slide 10 where our business delivered a strong third quarter supported by continued pricing momentum, ongoing performance improvement initiatives and contributions from acquisitions. On top of a 5% increase in revenue we delivered a 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 non residential 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.

Nancy Buese — Chief Financial Officer

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 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 continue to deliver significant accretive returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. 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 five 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.

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Thanks Nancy. As you can see here on slide 15, in North America, our largest market, we have strategically and deliberately built out our four key growth platforms to become the number one infrastructure play in the region. Let me step you through each of these in turn. It all begins with aggregates, a valuable finite resource and the backbone of our business. In fact, approximately 95% of our revenue is connected to aggregates. Aggregates feed into everything we do, from our cementitious business to our roads business to our water infrastructure platform. Here, our position is unrivalled. With 230 million tonnes of annual production and 20 billion tonnes 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 tonnes 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 produce more than 50 million tonnes of asphalt annually, equivalent to the next five 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 number one 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 pipe plant with 70,000 tonnes 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 Raleigh 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 ecomaterial technologies and GROTC Capex Investments.

Randy Lake — COO

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. 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 EcoMaterial 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 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.

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

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 EcoMaterial 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 and $7.7 billion, a 10% increase at the midpoint, net income between 3.8 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 and 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 IJA. Approximately 60% of the IJA 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 unmatched 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 four 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 number one 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 re industrialization, we expect continued strong demand for large scale manufacturing and data center investment. With approximately $690 billion of data centre projects either announced or 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 US 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’ve 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 favourable demographics and significant levels of underbuild. In our international business, we expect robust demand and infrastructure to continue supported by significant investment from government and EU funding programs, non residential 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 and the benefits of the CRH winning way, leaving us uniquely positioned to capitalise 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 and A session of our call.

operator

Thank you. As a reminder to those on the phone, press star one if you would like to ask a question. We will now pause briefly while we register the questions in the Q and A roster. We’ll take our first question from Anthony Pitineri with Citi. Please go ahead.

Tom Holmes — Head of Investor Relations.

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 and A. Hi Anthony, Good morning. Yeah, 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 on 26 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 re industrialization.

Maybe first on transportation, you know, with roads still 60% of the double IJ is yet to be spent and indeed the local state budgets are also strong into 2026. This kind of strong funding backdrop for us leaves us 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, 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 US on re industrialization into 26 we see data center activity continue to be strong.

Right. You know, and really for us, given our connected portfolio, it’s not just about, you know, delivering aggregates and sites. We’re often the very first person on site 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 the 30 year fix still at 6.2% it’s still too high. Right. And we need continued interest rate cuts before we see any recovery on the US 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 if you infrastructure strong. Right. Both strong levels of EU and local government funding as well across or state fund or state government funding across Europe re industrialization we kind of see a stable outlook for 2026 and on residential and Europe slightly different because you know Europe and the euro are more advanced on interest rate reductions and we’re beginning already to see the benefit of that coming true in terms of a continued recovery in residential.

But maybe Randy, just maybe specific volume and prices.

Randy Lake — COO

Yeah, 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 out in the northwestern part of the US in around Boise working on a chip manufacturing plant and a data center. I think what Jim called out as 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 ready mix and ultimately the paving around those sites.

So in the end that 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 you know 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. 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 that’s good to see and 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 six to nine 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 quantums as we look into next year in terms of what that means for an outlook in regards to demand. We were looking at our AGS 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.

Randy Lake — COO

Circling back to the question about the M and 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 this M and 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. Okay, that’s very helpful. I’ll turn it over. Your next question comes from the line of Adrian Huerta with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Nancy Buese — Chief Financial Officer

Good morning everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Pretty impressive what the company has done in terms of margins in the last in the prior two 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. The margin improvement in this quarter mainly coming from the building solutions in the US and from international solutions. How do you see this evolving and the opportunities for 2026? Good morning Adrian.

Jim here. Yeah, 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, this will be our 12th consecutive year which is really reflecting that proven track record and consistency of delivery year in, year out. As you said actually recently, I mean we don’t see any structural ceiling to where we can take the margins. And it really is embedded as part of our performance mindset and deeply embedded in the culture of the company. And at the recent investor day, fact is, you know, we raised our ambition on the margins and you know, we’re forecasting margins and targets out of 22 to 24% by 2030.

And there’s a number of reasons which are giving us confidence that we’re going to achieve these margin increases. Firstly, it’s around the CRH win anyway, you know, that continued consistent execution of our superior strategy. The relentless quarter on quarter, year after year focus on driving performance, whether that’s a operational, commercial or even procurement. Right. And secondly, you know, you would have noticed that we did communicate, we did step up our growth cap expenditure right about 18 months ago and we’re beginning to see now the benefits of that coming true 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 on a bit specifically on some other aspects maybe, and actually maybe what’s happening, the cost inflation side of things?

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Yeah, 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. If you 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, subcontractors, those costs continue to move forward.

I think it, it certainly highlights the need for that further pricing momentum that I talked about as we go into, 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, expect another year of margin expansion as we go into next year.

operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stevens, please go ahead.

Tom Holmes — Head of Investor Relations.

Yeah, good morning everyone. Thank you for taking my question. So you guys are raising the midpoint of the EBITDAW 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? Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Trey. Yeah, 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 and maybe some of the puts and takes at the end of this, but you know, with the increase of 50 million that gives us a midpoint to 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 the kind of durable growth nature of the connected portfolio of local brands that we have. The increase in guidance reflects really a strong quarter three 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 three 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 Randy, would you comment on how we think about and how we manage land sales across crh?

Tom Holmes — Head of Investor Relations.

Yeah, 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. You know, 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.

Randy Lake — COO

And then just to 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 and 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 ma. Also remember though, 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.

Nancy Buese — Chief Financial Officer

Okay, all right, got it. That all makes sense. Thank you all very much. I’ll pass it on.

operator

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

Nancy Buese — Chief Financial Officer

Yes, thanks for taking my question. I’m just curious if we can unpack the drivers of performance and the margin expansion in America’s building solution. There’s been a lot more data points pointing to weakness in repair, remodeling, incremental weakness in residential. And you know, we saw the performance in America’s building solution this quarter. Hope you kind of unpack what you’re seeing there, what you feel is sustainable going forward and into 2026. Thank you. Yeah. Hi, Mike. Yeah, as you know, firstly maybe America Building Solutions, it comprises both our infrastructure business in the Americas, but also the outdoor living.

And maybe I might ask Rami, come back in outdoor living. But firstly, overall Right. A very strong Q3 performance. 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 re industrialization 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 are within 50 miles with sea and in fact right now we’re working on in total about 98 different data center projects. Now 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 all kind of sweet spot on this is the connected nature of the portfolio. That’s a real advantage. Right that we’re all, you know, we’re often, as I said earlier, first on site with our infrastructure project products, then we’re supporting that with our aggregates and cement and you know, 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 on outdoor living.

Randy Lake — COO

Yeah, outdoor living certainly I think performing very, very well when you look at underlying hardscapes, masonry, 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’s 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 is 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 call out our category leading brands. That’s really what draws kind of the connected nature with, 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’s called it out, that business is very deeply connected to the underlying ag and cementitious business. So that’s that combination of delivery certainly has been impressive this year and we look for more positive momentum even as we get into 26. Thank you.

operator

Your next question comes from the line of Catherine Thompson. With Thompson Research group. Please go ahead.

Randy Lake — COO

Hi, thank you for taking my question today. New 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 a wide variety of 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 US 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 prospects for the highway bill reauthorization in 2026. Thank you.

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Hi, Katrin, good morning. Yeah, maybe just you’re right, infrastructure for us is our biggest segment, is a segment which really drives CRH across both the Americas and international. And maybe just to put it in some context, and particularly our roads business, as you know, we’re the largest road paver in the US with producing in excess of 50 million tonnes of asphalt per annum across 43 states. And as I said earlier, it’s actually our 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, you know, with still 60% of the double IJ 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? And on a typical year, to give it a bit of scale, we do about 4,000 paving jobs per year. They typically last about 90 to 120 days. Right. And you know, with the connected nature of the portfolio, that paving activity really pulls through, you know, the highest quality and the highest value and the highest margin aggregates through, you know, our connected portfolio. We called it out recently actually on the investor day, you know, by actually not just producing ags, we have that ability to take what is a kind of an indicative $10 per cash profit per tonne and turn that into $60 by turning it into asphalt, adding liquid asphalt and indeed paving it.

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, you know, five, six 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 the 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 color on that?

Randy Lake — COO

Yeah, I guess first, just to build on Jim’s point, the IJA, as you know, Catherine, about 60% of that funding has yet to really hit the street. And we called that out, I think we said early on was a five year piece of legislation, was going to take seven 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 worked from a federal to the state level. So our bidding activity is up. So we’re encouraged by that.

I think the, 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 TNI 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, you know, 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.

operator

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

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Good morning, gentlemen. Nancy, hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can, Mike. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, okay. Yeah, good. Yeah, thank you, thank you. So just want to get your thoughts on the M and A pipeline. You know, as you’ve, you know, Excel, you’ve accelerating on your four connected platforms. Where now are you seeing some of the focus on the capital allocation towards M and A over the next six to 12 months. Yeah, sure, Mike. Yeah, 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 you know, 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. You said it in the question. Actually at this stage we’ve built four growth platforms of scale coast to coast across the US in aggregate, cementitious roads and water. It also reflects our ability to integrate 27 deals year to date. To be able to integrate those at pace and get early execution and deliver 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, you know, 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 we were going to call 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 and a and then 30% in terms of shareholder returns. So the consistent year in, year out ability to deploy capital in value accretive acquisition really highlights us as the 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.

Tom Holmes — Head of Investor Relations.

On Eco, yeah, 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 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. They’re focused on ensuring their teams are safe. That’s our number one 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 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 Ashgrove is going to give us plenty of opportunities from a commercial standpoint. And remember, the SCMS 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 US close to 8,000 rail cars 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, 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, with our scale. So overall, excited to, 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.

Randy Lake — COO

Appreciate the observations. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. We have time for one last question and that question comes from the line of Colin Sheridan with Davey. Please go ahead. Yeah, good morning guys and thanks for the presentation. My question’s on the international solutions business. Clearly it’s had an excellent Q3 in terms of the profit 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.

Jim Minturn — Chief executive Officer

Colin? Yeah, listen, as you call that a really good quarter, actually a really good year to date and building off a really strong 2024 as well. But you know, year to date, you know, 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 three to five years across the, the international portfolio. And it’s really recovering from what has been a challenging period, Right. It has had 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, you know, Europe is more advanced in the kind of interest rate cycle, the cutting of interest rates and that’s coming true in terms of being more supportive of continued residential recovery. That together with good EU level and individual state level funding for infrastructure, you know, 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, you know, across the European business and we’re expecting further momentum 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 true 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. You know, good news, you know, really good delivery on synergies ahead of our expectations and good positive momentum into 2026.

That’s great. Thanks Amaya. Thanks Colin. Well, I think that brings us to the end of 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.

operator

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