CRH - Q3 2023 TU

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day. My name is Randeep, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the CRH Earnings Update Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press the star and the one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Albert Manifold, CRH's Chief Executive, to begin the conference.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Hello, everyone. Albert Manifold here, CRH Group Chief Executive, and you're all very welcome to our conference call and webcast presentation, which accompanies the release of our earnings update earlier today. Joining me on the call is Jim Mintern, our Group CFO, and Tom Holmes, Head of Investor Relations. Over the next 20 minutes or so, Jim and I will take you through some of the main points of this morning's announcement, highlighting the key drivers of our trading performance for the first nine months of the year, providing you with an update on recent portfolio activity, as well as an indication of our expectations for the year as a whole. Based on the visibility that we have at this moment in time, we'll also share our thoughts on some trends we're seeing across our markets as we look ahead to 2024.

Afterwards, we'll be available to take any questions that you may have, and all told, we should be done in 45 minutes or so. First, on slide one, I'd like to take a moment to mention a few of the key highlights from this morning's statement. Following overwhelming support from our shareholders earlier this year, we successfully completed the transition of our primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange in September. This is an important milestone in our development, and one that will enable CRH to fully participate in the significant growth opportunities that lie ahead. With regard to trading performance, I'm pleased to report that the positive momentum we experienced in the first half has continued into the third quarter. For the first nine months of the year, our business has delivered further growth in sales, EBITDA and margin.

Total group sales of $26.3 billion were 8% ahead, reflecting good underlying demand and further commercial progress across our businesses. This translates into EBITDA of $4.8 billion, 14% ahead, and a further 100 basis points of margin improvement. A strong performance despite contending with some inflationary cost pressures. This morning, we've announced an agreement to acquire an attractive portfolio of cement and ready mix concrete assets in Texas for $2.1 billion, a significant investment which will deliver further growth and value creation for our shareholders. I'll take you through that in further detail a little later in the presentation. We also continue to return significant amounts of cash to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

Our ongoing share buyback program is on track to return approximately $3 billion in 2023, and the current tranche of our program will be completed before the end of the year. In advance of our intended transition to quarterly dividends in 2024, and consistent with our progressive dividend policy and strong financial position, this morning, we have announced an accelerated payment of our 2023 dividend, representing a 5% increase compared to the prior year. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, and based on current trading conditions and the momentum we see across our businesses, I'm pleased to report that we are raising our previous guidance and expect to deliver full year group EBITDA of approximately $6.3 billion, well ahead of the prior year and representing another record year for CRH.

Turning to slide two, and before taking you through the trading performance for each of our businesses, I'll briefly outline our thoughts on the market backdrop and trading environment across our main markets in North America and Europe over the course of the year so far. Despite the impact of higher interest rate environment, we continue to experience positive underlying demand across our key end-use markets. In infrastructure, our largest end market, representing approximately 40% of revenues, it continues to be underpinned by historic increases in U.S. federal, state, and E.U. funding programs. In non-residential, we continue to experience good demand in our key segments, particularly in new build manufacturing and industrial facilities. These are typically large, complex projects which fit very well with our capability to deliver fully integrated bespoke solutions to our customers.

As for residential, while the pace of new build construction in North America and Europe continues to be impacted by higher interest rates and affordability constraints, remodeling demand remains resilient, supported by high home equity values and an aging housing stock in growing need of repair, maintenance, and improvement. Turning now to the trading performance of each of our businesses, and first to the Americas Materials Solutions on slide three, which delivered a strong performance through the first nine months of the year. Notwithstanding some challenging weather conditions impacting our operations in certain regions of the United States, total sales and EBITDA were 7% and 11% ahead of the prior year, respectively. Despite contending with some inflationary cost pressures, particularly in the areas of raw materials, labor, and logistics, I'm pleased to report further improvement in our margin.

70 basis points ahead, reflecting good commercial management across all product lines and disciplined cost control. As we look ahead to the remainder of the year, I'm also encouraged by the positive momentum in our backlogs, which we're now seeing the benefits in the historic uplift in U.S. infrastructure spending I mentioned earlier. … So overall, another strong performance from Americas Material Solutions, which continues to be underpinned by the benefits of our integrated strategy. Next to Americas Building Solutions on slide four, which has also delivered strong profit growth and further margin expansion in the first nine months of the year. Our Building and Infrastructure Solutions business continues to benefit from positive momentum in our key markets, underpinned by significant public investment in water, energy, utility infrastructure, and increased levels of onshoring activity in the manufacturing sector.

Our Outdoor Living Solutions business also continues to perform well, supported by resilient residential online demand from both retail and professional customers, good pricing momentum, and the contribution from Barrette Outdoor Living, which we acquired last year. So for Americas Building Solutions overall, total sales growth of 15% translated into a 23% increase in EBITDA, reflecting good operating leverage and a further 150 basis points of margin improvement. Moving across to Europe on slide five, and first to the performance of our Europe Materials Solutions business. nine-month sales were 6% ahead of the prior year period, with positive pricing momentum more than offsetting subdued residential demand.

This translates into 20% EBITDA growth and a further 180 basis points of margin improvement, reflecting strong operational leverage and our continued focus on commercial discipline, operational excellence initiatives, and cost saving in their actions to mitigate the impact of inflation. We're now in our sixth consecutive year of positive pricing momentum in Europe, with pricing ahead across all products during the first nine months of the year. Looking ahead to the remainder of 2023 and into next year, we're focused on maintaining strong commercial discipline to protect and improve our profitability. Next, to the performance of Europe Building Solutions on slide six. Overall, a more challenging trading environment, impacted by subdued residential activity and compounded by extended winter weather conditions across our markets earlier in the year.

However, activity levels in the non-residential and infrastructure segments remained resilient, supported by good levels of public funding. We continue to focus on good commercial management and cost savings actions to mitigate the impact of lower activity levels, and we expect trading trends to improve into 2024. At this point, I'm going to hand you over to Jim to take you through the year-end balance sheet expectations and our transition to quarterly dividends next year.

Jim Mintern (Group CFO)

Thanks, Albert, and good morning, everyone. Turning now to slide seven, and here you can see the key components underpinning our expectations for our year-end net debt position. I'm pleased to report that we expect to end the year with one of the strongest balance sheets in our history, reflecting our relentless focus on disciplined capital allocation and continuous business improvement to deliver higher profits, margins, returns, and cash for our shareholders. Let me briefly take you through the key components, working from left to right on the slide. We ended 2022 with a net debt position of $5.1 billion, representing a net debt to EBITDA of just under 1x.

We expect 2023 to be another year of strong cash generation for the group, enabling us to continue to invest for further growth, while also returning significant amounts of cash to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. In the year to date, we've invested approximately $700 million on 16 strategic bolt-on acquisitions, further developing our solutions capabilities in road infrastructure, utility infrastructure, and outdoor living. We also expect to invest approximately $1.8 billion in capital expenditure in 2023 to support further growth in our existing businesses. In addition, we expect to return approximately $4 billion to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Our ongoing share buyback program is expected to return approximately $3 billion for the year.

The current tranche of our program will be completed no later than the 20th of December, and we will update the market regarding our plans for further buybacks in due course. Taking all of this into account and assuming no further material development activity for the remainder of 2023, we expect to finish the year with net debt of approximately $7 billion or approximately 1.1x net debt to EBITDA, based on our full year EBITDA guidance. Turning now to slide eight, and this morning we also announced that we intend to transition to quarterly dividends, with more equally distributed payments commencing from the first quarter of 2024. This follows the successful change of our primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange in September and aligns with our transition to quarterly reporting under US GAAP next year.

In advance of our transition to quarterly dividends, the board has decided to accelerate the payment of the 2023 dividend by distributing a second interim dividend of $1.08 per ordinary share. The second interim dividend payment will be in lieu of a final dividend, resulting in a full year dividend per share of $1.33 for 2023, which represents a 5% increase compared to the prior year. We have a long and proud track record of progressive dividends, and the increase in our full year dividend that we are declaring today represents CRH's 40th consecutive year of dividend growth and stability.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Thanks, Jim. Turning now to slide nine, and our agreement to acquire an attractive portfolio of cement and ready-mixed concrete assets in Texas, a significant investment that will further strengthen our position as the number 1 building materials business in the fastest growing state in the United States. The assets are primarily located in the high growth markets of San Antonio and Austin, two of the fastest growing cities in Texas, and will really complement our existing network of business across the central Texas region. As you can see from the map on the right-hand side of the slide, the acquisition is an excellent strategic fit with our existing materials and products operations in Texas. By leveraging our expertise and technical capabilities from our wider North American cement platform, as well as our European materials businesses, it will result in significant synergies and self-supply opportunities.

We've a proven capability and track record in that regard, demonstrated by the performance of Ash Grove since we acquired it in 2018. Of course, Texas is a highly attractive market from a construction standpoint. Strong population and GDP growth continues to drive new build activity, and is also the largest recipient of federal highway funding. As a result, the demand outlook is robust, underpinned by a strong pipeline of large, multi-year infrastructure and non-residential projects. Next to slide 10, where you can see the total agreed consideration of $2.1 billion. The combined portfolio of assets is expected to generate pro forma 2023 EBITDA of approximately $170 million, representing an attractive valuation before the significant synergies and savings we have identified to date.

The assets comprise a 2.1 million ton cement plant, together with a network of terminals along the eastern Gulf Coast of Texas, as well as a portfolio of 20 ready-mix concrete plants, with annual shipments of approximately 1.6 million cubic yards. These are modern, high quality assets with an attractive returns profile under our ownership, and the transaction will be initially margin accretive to the group. And perhaps most exciting of all, is the potential to unlock additional further growth and development opportunities in this attractive growth market. At $2.1 billion, this is our third largest ever deal, and by integrating this into CRH, we believe we've created a tremendous amount of value for our business and our shareholders. We expect the acquisition to complete in the first half of 2024, and we'll update you on that in due course.

Turning now to our outlook for the remainder of the year on slide 11. Based on current trading conditions and the momentum we see across our businesses, I'm pleased to report that we are raising our previous guidance and expect to deliver full year group EBITDA of approximately $6.3 billion, representing our 10th consecutive year of margin expansion and another record year for CRH. In addition, as a result of our ongoing focus on strong cash generation and balance sheet discipline, we expect to deliver approximately $5 billion of operating cash flow and a year-end net debt to EBITDA ratio of around 1.1x. Now, before I hand over to Q&A, I'd like to take a moment on slide 12 to share our thoughts on some of the trends we're seeing across our major markets as we look ahead to 2024.

Today, North America represents 75% of group EBITDA, and the remaining 25% in Europe. First, to infrastructure, which represents the largest exposure for the group. Here, the outlook is robust, with demand in the United States underpinned by the continued rollout of a once-in-a-generation federal and state investment program. Similarly, in Europe, we expect robust demand in infrastructure activity to continue, supported by significant investment from government and EU funding programs. In non-residential, we expect key segments to continue to benefit from increased reindustrialization and onshoring activity. In the United States, this is supported by $650 billion of federal funding for increased investment in clean energy, critical utilities, and high-tech manufacturing, following the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act. Europe is also benefiting from increased onshoring activity, with over EUR 200 billion of high-tech manufacturing projects in the pipeline.

In the residential segment, we expect new build activity in the United States and Europe to remain subdued due to affordability challenges caused by the current interest rate environment. This is not a demand issue, and we believe the long-term fundamentals for residential construction remain very attractive in these markets, supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of underbuild. In summary, the overall trend is positive for our business heading into next year, supported by robust demand in infrastructure and key non-residential segments, partly offset by subdued activity in new build residential construction. 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 integrated and value-based solution strategy. That concludes our presentation today, and we're now happy to take your questions.

May I ask you please to state your name and the institution that you represent before posing your questions. In consideration for others on the line, and to make the best use of time we have available, could I ask you please to limit your questions to one each, where possible. I'll now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.

Operator (participant)

At this time, I'd like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile any questions. Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad now. Our first question comes from the line of Ross Harvey with Davy. Please go ahead.

Ross Harvey (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi there. Thank you very much. It'd be great to start with the acquisition in Texas, please. I'm just wondering, can you talk us through the rationale, your view on the macro backdrop in Texas and maybe also the synergy potential for the deal? Separately, we're seeing supportive growth trends in the U.S. into 2024. Just wondering, can you talk us through how you feel CRH is positioned to capitalize on those?

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Good day, Ross. Nice to talk to you. Let me address your first question with regard to the deal we announced this morning, the signing of the deal with the acquisition of the cement plant and ready-mix concrete assets in Texas. I mean, Texas is the number one construction state in the United States, second most populous state, and actually one of the fastest growing states in the U.S. We have been the largest building materials player in Texas for quite some time, and it makes sense for us, given the growth dynamics we're seeing there, with population growth, inward migration. It's the beneficiary of a lot of onshoring activity, and in fact, Texas has more roads than any other state in the United States.

In fact, it's got 50% more roads than the state of California, which is number two. If you look at the broad spectrum of the businesses that we're involved in, the processing of basic raw materials, how we turn those basic raw materials into different products, be they for roads or for general construction or for complex solutions, it absolutely is right in our sweet spot in terms of the high grade construction that's going forward here, and fits with our solution. So I look at all the dynamics going forward, looking at strong growth, it's the largest recipient of highway funding as part of the federal funding that's currently in place. So everything points towards, you know, good, consistent, strong growth, which is the...

As number one player, we're doubling down on our position there, and I would keep doubling down on our position there, because just putting ourselves into good markets like this, where we have an opportunity to excel, and being number one matters in our industry because it gives you scale, and scale gives you cost advantages, gives you market advantages, and allows you access more of your customer's wallet. So that's why Texas, quite simply. With regards to the cycle, well, look, I mean, I think we're in a strong growth cycle across the United States at this moment in time. 70% of our sales go into either infrastructure or commercial construction.

If you look at where that is being driven at this moment in time, obviously infrastructure's been driven by the various stimulus packages and the robust state budgets. But on top of that, we're seeing very significant growth coming from the onshoring and reshoring of commercial activities, and I think that alone is gonna drive things. For sure, residential is at a low point, but given where we've seen inflation fall back during this year, happily so, we expect to see an easing of the interest rate environment, and that will address some of the affordability issues, and we expect towards the end of 2024 to see residential coming back online.

So I think we're in a good place in the cycle, and actually, quite frankly, in Texas, we're in a good place to be there in that position in the cycle. It's too early to quantify synergies yet. I'll be perfectly honest with you. You would expect, as one of the most experienced and capable cement producers in the world, with cement factories all across Europe and all across the United States, we have a lot of expertise and a lot of experience. All I would do is point you back to this telephone call in 2018 when we acquired Ash Grove, and we bought that business. We were delighted to buy it. And in the five years, we doubled the profitability at Ash Grove over the last five years.

We did that by our process technology, our skill, and our expertise in reducing different types of fuels, different types of cements, and that's exactly what we will plan to do with this, this particular cement plant, and across our-- and continue to do so across our other cement plants. And when we get our feet under the table towards the, in next year, we'll come back, and we'll be more specific with our plan for the timing of those synergies. Your second question was generally about sort of growth trends across the U.S. in 2024, and how do we feel we're positioned? Look, we are the largest building materials business in the United States. We're the largest aggregate producer in the United States. We're the clear number one in the growth states of Texas and Florida, two of the top three states in the United States.

In fact, three of the top four states, CRH is number one. In Texas, Florida, and New York, we're top three cement producers. So we position ourselves to be a manufacturer and producer of high quality solutions in the fastest growing regions of the United States. As I've said to you, we are a major beneficiary of infrastructure stimulus packages, about 50% of what we do, and that looks like it's gonna continue for several years going forward. On top of that, we're uniquely positioned to capitalize on the onshoring activity we're seeing. Our solutions strategy is playing out very well, and it manifests itself in the leverage you're seeing coming through in the bottom line, the increased margins you're seeing within our business, and crucially, the increased cash we're generating.

So we're accused—we're generating higher profits, cash, and returns than anybody else. As I keep saying about CRH, if you add up our next four peers together, they're still less than CRH on its own. That's the size and scale of CRH, and big and scale matters with CRH if you do use it in that and position yourself. So I don't believe anybody is better positioned to CRH to capitalize on this position in the United States going forward for the next number of years.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of Gregor Kuglitsch with UBS. Please go ahead.

Gregor Kuglitsch (Managin Director)

Hi, good morning, guys. A few questions, please. So firstly, on sort of capital returns, so obviously doing your buyback, the $3 billion, you're kind of nearly done, but if you kind of care to take us through what you're thinking for next year, and maybe related to that, I think the dividend, just to clarify, I think the rephasing implies that you maybe pay $400 million-$500 million more than you would normally do, just sort of as a one-off. Is that fair? And then secondly, on M&A. So can you just summarize for us, with all the deals you've done this year, I guess with the one you've announced today, what you expect the sort of incremental contribution to be next year to earnings, please? Thank you.

Jim Mintern (Group CFO)

Hi, Gregor. Jim here. I'll take those questions. Maybe first on the share buyback. As you know, that, all our capital allocation decisions that we take in CRH are assessed through that lens of trying to maximize and ensuring we're maximizing shareholder value, and buybacks are a flexible and efficient allocation of that cash. We announced in March, earlier this year, that we were stepping up the buyback, you're right, to $3 billion over the next 12 months. That runs to March 2024. And indeed, the current phase of the buyback, which is the $1 billion tranche-

... will end no later than the 20th of December, and in fact, that will bring the total buybacks in the calendar year also to $3 billion. In fact, since we started the buyback program in 2018, we'll have returned by the end of the year a little under $7 billion, which is almost 19% of the capital when we started the program. You know, we will be updating when we finish the current tranche at the 20th of September, and we'll give a bit of guidance then as we look into 2024 at that stage. Maybe on the dividends next. Yeah, we are advancing, I suppose, in anticipation of moving to quarterly reporting next year. We will, in 2024, also be moving to quarterly dividends, right?

Which is more the norm with the U.S. listing. And in light of that, we're in fact going to advance the final dividend this year as a second interim dividend. That's going to be the record date will be mid-December, and in fact, that will be paid in mid-January 2024. So that will bring the total dividend to a 5% increase, so $1.33 per share. And in fact, when you take it together with the with the share buyback, that's $4 billion in cash returned to shareholders in 2023, which is, you know, about 10% of our market cap today. It's not actually a one-off increase, and that, obviously, you know, we're bringing forward the final dividend next year, and there'll be four quarterlies paid declared next year.

The final quarter next year will be paid in early 2025. Just in terms of the scope impact on the acquisitions, we have announced we've done 16 bolt-on deals so far this year at an average multiple of about 8x and a total consideration of about $700 million. So that approximates about $19 million incremental EBITDA for a full year. The impact this year was about $25 million, so looking into 2024, the incremental benefit in 2024 from the bolt-on deals is going to be around $65 million. Just on the Texas deal, which Albert just referred to, the pro forma EBITDA this year is about $170 million.

It will require some time to close that transaction, and assuming that we close it towards the end of Q1, that will give you a nine-month contribution next year of approximately about $125 million EBITDA. So the total contributions incremental in 2024 from the bolt-ons and the Texas deal would be approximately $190 million incremental in 2024.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Please go ahead, sir.

Anthony Pettinari (Research Analyst)

Good morning. You gave some helpful commentary on 2024, and I'm just wondering, in Americas Materials, with the positives from public spending, but also some questions around residential, is your expectation that you can grow aggregates volumes in 2024 in Americas Materials? And then maybe a similar question, when you look at your operating rates in cement in Americas, is there room for organic growth in 2024? Is that your expectation or are you kind of functionally sold out? Just wondering if you could talk about maybe volume expectations for 2024 in Americas.

Jim Mintern (Group CFO)

Yeah. Hi, Anthony, Jim here. I'll take those as well. If you look into 2024, maybe from the U.S. perspective and looking at the end use markets, on the infra side, we saw it in 2023, that continuous kind of trending upwards ramp up on the IIJA funding coming through, and we see that continuing, particularly into the back half of 2024. And we see that actually in our backlogs exiting this year, a good momentum into 2024. So good, strong, robust funding at both the federal and the state level on the infra side.

On the non-red side, we continue to benefit, particularly on the kind of heavy material side, which is from the onshoring and reshoring projects, and particularly with our own footprint from that perspective, and that we see continuing as well, holding up in 2024. Residential, you know, continues to be subdued. Albert referred to that, and we certainly think it's gonna be the back end of 2024 before we see any improvement on that front. And when you look at that, altogether from an activity level in 2024, we'd expect activity levels in, across the U.S. really to be approximately kind of flattish into, into 2024.

Now, on the pricing side, we do expect we're exiting this year with good momentum on the pricing side, and we're looking forward again in the U.S. to kind of a double-digit price increases in 2024. And that's a combination of kind of price increases early in the year, but also similar to this year, mid-year prices coming through as well. Maybe specifically on the cement side, in terms of organic capacity, I think we're well positioned from that perspective, Anthony, you know, from our, in terms of the capacity that we have around our network with an excellent footprint with our cement assets, enhanced by the deal that we announced today, particularly in Texas.

As you know, that's, you know, the whole kind of trend and migration towards introducing the kind of set Type IL cements in the U.S. as well, is certainly helping from that position. So no concerns on the domestic capacity from that perspective.

Anthony Pettinari (Research Analyst)

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

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of David O'Brien with Goodbody. Please go ahead.

David O'Brien (Head of Research)

Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe you could build on Anthony's, Jim, if you could give us the same kind of commentary on the outlook for volume and price in Europe, and on the latter, just, you know, what is underpinning price tension as volumes stay a little bit subdued? And if I could tag a second on in the statement, you talk about a robust pipeline of opportunities on the M&A front. Are there similar size deals to the type of deal we've seen today, or how would you describe the mix of opportunities within that pipeline?

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Hi, David. I'll just take the second question first about the pipeline and what we're going to M&A, and I'd like Jim to obviously come from the European business. Look, we often talk about our robust pipeline, and here you see today some of that pipeline crystallizes. I think the key issue for us is that we have a wide and varied list of long list of companies that we can invest in. From our point of view, it's making sure that we prioritize those to fit with our growth ambitions and also the shape of CRH as it evolves in front of us. Because we're designing CRH and looking at CRH for the years ahead, not what's behind us. The rationale for Texas will be the same very clearly.

It's all about being in high growth markets where we've got competency, capability, and proficiency, and an opportunity. We have space to grow there, and being a number one is a huge advantage to us. So they're the criteria we look at. Are we the number one, number two? Are these high growth markets? Do we have a competency or near competency in this area? And does this help the overall strategic shape of CRH, which is all focused on executing solutions? Because it doesn't just give us extra sales or profitability, because, you know, anybody can buy sales and anybody can buy profitability. You can't buy returns, you can't buy cash, and you can't buy margin expansion. You've gotta work on all of these. Margin expansion is because you become more efficient.

You, you make better returns because you invest well, and you get better, more profits than anybody else who invest in the business. And CRH is by standalone, the best returning in business in terms of investment in our business, in our industry. And our margin expansion, tenth consecutive years of margin expansion, is as a result of a carefully thought of M&A strategy, executed well on the ground by strong operations, and again, cash. All that focused on, can we buy business that keep generating the cash? Because the $5 billion in cash we're gonna generate this year, will accumulate into $35 billion of cash over the next five years. So for us, that's what our pipeline is about. It's the criteria which we look at, and every time we do deals, that's...

You should hold us up to that mirror and say, "Okay, how do you tick the box with regard to those?" Because that's how you build out the quality of the business with regard to CRH. So our pipeline is good, strong, and robust, we're disciplined, we know what we're focused on. We have a longer term plan, but that's the basis and the structure about which that plan is built. Jim, I'll pass you the European businesses.

Jim Mintern (Group CFO)

Yeah, absolutely, David. Yeah. I think when you look at the activity levels this year in 2023, we'd kind of see, broadly speaking, across the entire footprint of Europe, David, that they've probably troughed this year, right? As we look into 2024, and again, it's probably a reflection of our own footprint as well, and that kind of real strong presence we have in Central and Eastern Europe, which, as you know, is a very big net recipient of EU funding on the whole infrastructure program, which is certainly helping support activity levels in those particular regions and countries. And generally, in fact, our footprint, our main footprint across Europe would be in similar positions with good, strong, robust support on the infrastructure side.

In terms of residential, clearly in Europe, it's. It remains subdued and it's going to need a change. It's not a demand issue, it's more an affordability issue, so you're going to need that change on the interest rate cycle before we see that really turning around. But overall, as I said, kind of exiting this year, pretty much I think, you know, we started to trough in the middle part of 2023 and looking forward into 2024 with that kind of backdrop. In terms of pricing, two strong years in 2022 and 2023 in Europe, really reacting to that period of hyperinflation that we saw on energy coming out of 2022, and we're still playing catch up on that. And we see good momentum in that pricing heading into 2024.

We're still recovering some of that inflation and looking forward to another year of pricing in 2024, which hopefully will be the seventh consecutive year of strong pricing across Europe.

Operator (participant)

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

Kathryn Thompson (Founding Partner and CEO)

Hi, thank you for taking my question today. Circling back to the transaction today, buying assets from Martin, you did a great job of laying out the strategic reasoning why, but maybe stepping back in the bigger picture, this is... You'll continue to have a close relationship with Martin Marietta. As you think about what is good for CRH, but also for the industry, why does this make sense from an industry standpoint with the U.S.? What does this mean for your ongoing collaborative relationship with Martin going forward? And what are your thoughts about the Hunter facility and its relation to the terminals in the Gulf? Thank you.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Thank you, Kathryn. Good day to you, too. Look, we're delighted to have the opportunity to acquire this business. We are experienced cement experts throughout the world, and we've been in the cement business for almost 80 years. The ability for us to be able to transfer our knowledge and technology from other parts of the world, quite frankly, can bring new types of products and cements to the market that don't currently exist. Jim earlier referred to different types of cement, Type I cement. We use several different types of cements in Europe here, and for different applications. There's absolutely no reason why we couldn't use those types of cement in the United States, and in fact, we're already doing so. We, since we bought Ash Grove, have expanded out to three different types of cement.

What that does, though, is that it introduces different products to the market, which would use less clinker, allow for better applications and indeed better performance by those different types of cements. So actually, what I think what we can do is, over time, we can bring better types of concretes, more appropriate types of concretes to the marketplace. So in that way, I think bringing our expertise to the Texas market, that particular part of the Texas market, will be very helpful going forward.

I think the relationship that our cement businesses have, as indeed our aggregates businesses have, as a basis for our solutions business going forward, is really very, very interesting. Some of the construction work that's taking place in Texas is some of the most complex construction we've seen, not just in terms of basic main traditional infrastructure, but I mean, in the modern infrastructure, we're looking at transportation of biking facilities, whether it's telecommunications or information technology, the transportation of water, or indeed the complex construction in and around the reshoring of manufacturing facilities. Again, having the base materials and the knowledge how to manipulate those to create products, again, helps us deliver what we say is higher quality market products to market as we build back America better, at a cheaper cost, better quality, more resilient, with greater sustainability.

With regard to our relationships with our peers and our competitors, I think it's interesting that some people focus on being single product players. Some people focus on being broader building materials players. I think there's space for each and every one of us in the marketplace. Those who specialize can specialize in particular areas. It's obviously a narrower field to be in. We choose to be a different type of company, and we choose to do so because we believe the solutions approach that we take gives us greater opportunity to create value for our shareholders. And I'd like anyone to stand up our company in terms of profit growth, margins, cash generation, and returns against any other business.

That's why we choose to be the business that we are, because we produce industry-leading growth, industry-leading cash, industry-leading returns, and I think that's what our shareholders want to see. But I think there's space for everybody in this industry, and particularly in the strong growth markets as we're seeing in Texas. Going forward, I think there's space for all of us.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line, Elodie Rall with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Elodie Rall (Managing Director and Executive Director)

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So maybe if we can, switch to cost inflation and have your early view on what we should expect, for next year in both North America and Europe, if we take into account your winter-fill program, so what kind of cost inflation should we factor in, and how about wage inflation as well? Thank you.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Your question, just to be clear, Elodie, were with regard to our, our winter-fill program and how that's going, and then also what we should factor in for cost inflation for next year. Have I got that correct?

Elodie Rall (Managing Director and Executive Director)

Yes. Everything. Thank you.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Yes. Maybe I might just deal with the general cost inflation. I might ask Jim just to comment on the winter-fill program and how it's going. I mean, it's very hard to know in terms of what's going to happen with regard to energy. Our expectation for energy in 2024 versus 2023, broadly speaking, is flat. And with this current year, we don't have any expectations. It's at a high level, but broadly speaking, with regard to energy, it's flat. Now, of course, we'll react to that as it evolves or prompts us, but I don't expect to see a significant drop or a significant rise with regard to that.

With regard to the other costs across our business, we do expect to see inflation cost pressure on wages, logistics, other input costs, probably in the region of, depending on where you are, between 4%, 5%, maybe even 6%, because there's still a significant catch up on the very significant cost of living increases driven by energy in 2022 across the broad economy. So we're expecting those. And again, that just again underlines the need for us to ensure that we are progressive with our price increases to protect our margins and our business. With regard to the winter-fill program, Jim?

Jim Mintern (Group CFO)

Yeah. Hi, Elodie. Yeah, this year, firstly, in 2023, we've had a very strong and good year around our winter-fill program, and that was really on the back of kind of high levels of refining that was happening down on the Gulf Coast, and that enabled us to take a lot of that liquid off the market and store it throughout the winter of 2022 into 2023. Looking into next year, we'll only now start thinking about filling up the tanks again. And as you know, Elodie, it's as much about making sure we have surety of supply.

We would typically buy up to about half of our annual requirement in off season, and put that into winter fill, and make sure we have that product ready in the system to be able to meet the demand, which in some parts of the U.S. is quite a short paving season, which starts in kind of mid-April up to November. But looking forward again into next year, expecting a good, successful winter fill program as well, heading into 2024.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of Will Jones with Redburn Atlantic. Please go ahead.

Will Jones (Equity Analyst Covering Construction and Building Materials)

Thanks, sir. Morning. Could I ask about Americas Materials Solutions? Sorry, Americas Building Solutions, just the sharp acceleration in demand, in margin, sorry, in 3Q, relative to the first half, just whether the—what you'd call out for us on that, on that front as to why that happened, particularly given that sales didn't really move, relatively speaking. Any one-offs or mix issues in that, around building solutions? Thanks.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Hi, Will. Good day to you. No real one-offs or no mix there. It really just is, it's a continuation of the improving portfolio of assets we have within those two businesses. Our two businesses, let me just remind you, within there, are our Outdoor Living Solutions business, which would be one of our strongest performing businesses in CRH over the last number of years. I mean, it's, there's resilient demand because it's not exposed to new builds construction, but we seem to be in a sweet spot there in terms of delivering our products and getting good volumes going through there. But particularly the change in our product portfolio in the last number of years has delivered a really strong performance in the bottom line and looks set to continue into 2024.

The second business we have within our America's Building Solutions business is our Building and Infrastructure Solutions. These are, as I say, supplying, as I talked about modern infrastructure, supplying a lot of the products that are involved in the transportation of vital utilities, water, energy, communications, and indeed supplying products to the onshoring manufacturing activities. And again, really, it's the solution story coming in there again, kicking in there, providing extra added value on top of the products, that's delivering the extra margin and the extra profitability. So it's really the solution story being really exhibited. That part of our business, Americas Building Solutions, is the one that's most exposed to the solution story and it's the one that's been the best performing business we've seen across the best performing business across here for the last number of years.

Operator (participant)

We have time for one last question. Our last question comes from the line of Harry Goad with Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Harry Goad (Equity Analyst)

Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. We've obviously talked a lot about acquisitions today, but I guess the other side of that historically has also been divestments. And I don't expect you to talk specifically about what might be for sale, but can you remind us how you think about the rationale for maintaining assets, particularly, I guess, in Europe? And it looks like obviously it's a big incremental investment in American Materials. Is that where we should expect to see sort of the relative capital deployment to go in the future? Thanks.

Albert Manifold (CEO)

Hi, Harry, and good day to you. Look, we were very clear when we spoke at our event in September, that our business is 75% United States and 25% Europe. We like that profile of our business because we have a lot of the advantages of Europe, a lot of the innovation, a lot of technology we have in Europe, and we bring it to scale in the United States, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. With regard to divestments, divestments take place across CRH, where we see that perhaps somebody else is a better owner of a business that we own. I'm happy to say, I don't think we've got any really bad businesses left in CRH. I think we've, over time, our business has been repositioned over the last 10 years.

And just to remind everybody on the call, of the business that we owned in 2012 and 2013, we have sold 50% of those businesses over the last decade for about $10 billion. And by the way, we've invested $20 billion in new businesses. So it's a new CRH that's focused on going forward rather than going back. But that's not to say we don't continue on our work on portfolio. Really, for all of us as a senior management team, we are consistently looking at the performance of our businesses and the capital we have invested. And if we see opportunities to switch capital from lower returning areas into higher returning areas, we will do that, much the same as anybody on this call would do that.

So we will continue to do that. But when we do it, it will be an expression of how we believe about the opportunities we have in the business we sell, and how we can use the money from that opportunity to buy other businesses of higher returns. It won't be anything to do with the strategy of the business and whether we enter or exit a product area, a region, or anything like that at all. I can assure you, we are actively looking at rotating our portfolio continuously. It's something we talk about all the time. Some years it'll be tens of millions, some years it'll be hundreds of millions, but it'll all be about repositioning ourselves into higher growth areas, higher returns, higher cash, and higher margin businesses. Okay, listen, I think that's all we have time for today.

I just want to say thank you for your participation. I hope we've managed to answer all of your questions, but as always, if there's any follow-up questions you have, please feel free to get in touch with our investor relations team. We look forward to talking to you again on the 29th of February next year, when we report our full year results for 2023. Thank you for your time and have a good day.

Operator (participant)

I'd like to thank our speakers for today's presentation, and thank you all for joining us. This now concludes today's call, and you may now disconnect.