Building materials group CRH PLC (LSE:CRH) is due to report interim results on Thursday, 24 August, just weeks ahead of a switch of its primary listing to the United States.
Having announced intentions to rejig its listing in March’s full-year results, CRH is poised to leave the Irish stock exchange on 25 September and rehouse to a primary listing on the New York market.
A standard listing in London will be kept meanwhile, CRH said in June.
Its most recent trading update was in April, so investors on both sides of the Atlantic will be keen to hear about its recent performance, where the company last hailed a “positive start” to the year in spite of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties.
CRH tipped in its update that half-year earnings and margins should be ahead of last year’s interims, which came in at US$2.2 billion and 14.7% respectively.
“Looking ahead to our first-half trading performance, in our Americas segments we expect robust infrastructure demand, good activity in key non-residential segments, continued pricing progress and positive contributions from acquisitions.
“We anticipate a more challenging backdrop in Europe driven by continued inflationary pressures and some slowdown in the new-build residential sector,” the company said.
Analysts at UBS that considering CRH's peers that have already reported, "we think the bar to meet is higher and perhaps is closer to circa 10% LFL EBITDA growth".
The focus will be on outlook for the full year, they added, where they currently forecast revenue p 8% to US$35.3 billion and EBITDA up 7% to US$6.0 billion.
This is similar to the City consensus, but UBS thinks the market is "likely expect there to be an upgrade to this, potentially by an MSD [mid-single-digit] amount".