Irish Building Materials Group First-Half Profit Surges

Irish building materials group CRH posted a slightly stronger than expected 27% rise in first-half profit on Tuesday and said it expected strong growth for 2007 as a whole.

Pretax profit at CRH, one of the world's biggest suppliers to builders, was 670 million euros ($915.5 million) versus 526.4 million in the first six months of 2006 and an average forecast of 660.1 million in a Reuters poll of eight analysts.