The CRH Group, the largest manufacturer of building materials in North America and Europe, has invested $80 million in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.
According to Guillaume Cavalier, President of CRH in Central and Eastern Europe, in an interview with Forbes Ukraine, the group’s total investments in Ukraine over 25 years of operation amount to more than $500 million.
According to him, it is important to use locally produced cement in the context of infrastructure reconstruction in Ukraine, which will provide jobs and higher revenues to the state budget.
Cavalier emphasized that for the potential growth of the Ukrainian cement market after joining the EU, it is important to invest in the expansion of production now. He reminded that the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is currently considering CRH’s application to acquire the assets of Italian Buzzi in Ukraine – Volyn-Cement (Zdolbuniv, Rivne region) and Yugcement (Olshanske, Mykolaiv region).
As reported, on January 23, the AMCU announced the commencement of consideration of the case on concerted actions in the form of implementation of non-competition provisions enshrined in the concentration agreement between the Irish CRH group and Dyckerhoff GmbH, which own assets in Ukraine.
In June 2023, the Italian cement producer Buzzi, listed by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption as an international war sponsor, through its subsidiary Dyckerhoff GmbH, reached an agreement to sell part of its Eastern European business to the Irish CRH Group, including its Ukrainian assets in the form of two cement plants. The deal is expected to close in 2024.
Later, in September 2023, the AMC returned CRH’s merger filing without consideration due to non-compliance with the requirements, and noted that the group holds about a third of the Ukrainian cement market. In October of the same year, the agency resumed consideration of the case.
CRH has been operating in Ukraine since 1999. Since November 2021, its cement enterprises in Ukraine have been operating under the Cemark brand: Podilskyi Cement JSC (Khmelnytskyi region), Cement LLC (Odesa), and Mykolaivcement PrJSC (Lviv region).
CRH’s separate business in Ukraine is the production of concrete and reinforced concrete products. PoliBeton Energo’s Bila Tserkva concrete goods plant is a specialized enterprise that produces power transmission towers. PoliBeton’s concrete hub in the north of Odesa joined CRH in 2020.
CRH is the world’s leading manufacturer of building materials. The company employs around 71,000 people at its 3,200 sites in 28 countries. It is the largest manufacturer of building materials in North America and Europe. The company is also represented in Asia. CRH American depositary shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
