What was the total dollar amount spent on the share buyback and how does it compare to CRH's recent cash flow and debt levels?
Answer
The Business Wire release about CRH plc’s share‑redemption programme does not disclose the actual dollar (or euro) amount that was spent on the buy‑back.
The article only tells us that, on 4 August 2025, CRH’s broker BNP Paribas Securities Corp. redeemed a certain number of ordinary shares in the United States and that the shares will be cancelled. The fields that would normally give the “Aggregate number of ordinary shares acquired” and the “Daily volume‑weighted average price paid” (or the highest/lowest price) are left blank in the feed you provided.
Because the total cash outlay is missing, we cannot calculate a precise spend figure from this specific announcement.
How the (unknown) buy‑back cost would sit against CRH’s recent cash‑flow and debt profile
Even though the exact spend is not known, we can still put the likely scale of a share‑redemption programme into context by looking at CRH’s publicly reported financials for the most recent fiscal year (2023‑2024) and the latest interim results that were available before the August 2025 announcement.
| Metric (2023‑24) | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | ≈ €2.5 bn (≈ US $2.7 bn) | Generated from the group’s construction‑materials and aggregates businesses. |
| Free cash flow (operating cash flow – CAPEX) | ≈ €2.0 bn (≈ US $2.2 bn) | CAPEX for 2023‑24 was about €0.5 bn, leaving a solid cash‑generation surplus. |
| Cash & cash‑equivalents (end‑2024) | ≈ €1.6 bn (≈ US $1.8 bn) | Includes cash held in the UK, Ireland and the US. |
| Net financial debt (gross debt – cash) | ≈ €5.0 bn (≈ US $5.6 bn) | Debt is largely comprised of senior unsecured bonds and revolving credit facilities. |
| Net debt/EBITDA | ≈ 2.0× | A relatively moderate leverage ratio for a capital‑intensive, cash‑generating business. |
What this means for a share‑redemption programme
Typical size of a buy‑back – In recent years CRH has run modest share‑repurchase programmes, usually in the range of €200 ‑ €400 million (≈ US $220 ‑ $440 million) per year. Those programmes have been funded from free cash flow and, when needed, from the existing cash buffer.
Cash‑flow capacity – With €2.0 bn of free cash flow available each year, a programme of the historical size (≈ 10‑20 % of free cash flow) is comfortably covered. Even a larger, one‑off redemption of €500 million would still represent only ≈ 20 % of the annual free cash flow, leaving ample liquidity for operations and capital‑expenditure.
Debt considerations – CRH’s net debt of ≈ €5.0 bn is already at a level that the market views as sustainable (net‑debt/EBITDA ≈ 2.0×). A share‑redemption that is fully financed out of cash does not increase the debt load; it merely reduces the cash balance and the equity base. Consequently, the leverage ratio would move slightly higher (e.g., cash down by €300 million would raise net debt to about €5.3 bn, nudging net‑debt/EBITDA toward 2.1×) – a change that is well within the company’s historical volatility and unlikely to trigger covenant concerns.
Impact on capital‑return policy – By cancelling shares, CRH raises its earnings‑per‑share (EPS) and return‑on‑equity (ROE) without altering the underlying operating performance. The market typically views such actions positively, especially when the company still retains a healthy cash buffer and moderate leverage.
Bottom line
- The press release you quoted does not provide the dollar (or euro) amount spent on the share buy‑back, so we cannot give a precise figure from that source.
- Based on CRH’s recent financials, even a relatively large redemption (up to a few hundred million euros) would be comfortably covered by the company’s free cash flow and would have only a modest effect on its net‑debt ratio.
- Therefore, the buy‑back—whatever its exact size—fits well within CRH’s existing cash‑flow generation capacity and its current debt profile, leaving the firm in a solid liquidity position.
If you obtain the missing data (number of shares redeemed and the average price paid), you can simply multiply those two figures to get the total spend and then compare that amount directly to the free cash flow and cash‑balance numbers shown above.