Irish Building Materials Company CRH Outlook Revised To Negative On C.R. Laurence Acquisition; 'BBB+' Rating Affirmed

Irish building materials group CRH plc has agreed to acquire U.S.-based building materials provider C.R. Laurence Co. Inc. for about $1.3 billion using cash on the balance sheet. We believe that, following this transaction, the company's financial risk profile could be vulnerable to any potential weakening in market conditions or underperformance against our base-case scenario. We are therefore revising our outlook to negative from stable and affirming our 'BBB+' ratings on CRH. The negative outlook reflects our view that we could downgrade CRH over the next two years if its credit ratios do not improve and if free operating cash flow generation is insufficient to restore the company's credit profile. LONDON (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 3, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings

...+ Irish building materials group CRH plc has agreed to acquire U.S.-based building materials provider C.R. Laurence Co. Inc. for about $1.3 billion using cash on the balance sheet. + We believe that, following this transaction, the company's financial risk profile could be vulnerable to any potential weakening in market conditions or underperformance against our base-case scenario. + We are therefore revising our outlook to negative from stable and affirming our '###+' ratings on CRH. + The negative outlook reflects our view that we could downgrade CRH over the next two years if its credit ratios do not improve and if free operating cash flow generation is insufficient to restore the company's credit profile. LONDON (Standard & Poor's) Sept. 3, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it revised its outlook on Ireland-based building materials group CRH plc to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our '###+/A-2' long- and short-term corporate credit ratings...

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