Companies

‘We’re as dumb or as smart as anybody else’ – how CRH broke America

The materials giant is now bigger than the behemoths it competes with and is set for further expansion following its launch on the US stock exchange

Albert Manifold, group chief executive of CRH rings The Opening Bell on the New York Stock Exchange. CRH signalled in April that it was planning to float in the US, and that as part of this move it would de-list from Euronext Dublin. Picture: NYSE

Kathryn Thompson was sitting in New York’s Park Hyatt Hotel, watching CRH launch itself headlong onto the US stock exchange, when a particular phrase made her ears prick up.

It jarred slightly with Thompson, chief executive of a Nashville analyst firm called Thompson Research Group.

“A golden era of construction,” Thompson told the Business Post later, chuckling as she mimicked a line used by CRH at its first US investor presentation last week.

“We worded ...