CRH expects 10% profit rise this year after double-digit price rises

DUBLIN (Reuters) - CRH expects full year earnings to grow by 10% on a like-for-like basis, the world's second-largest building materials supplier said on Thursday, after increasing prices by double-digit percentages in the first half.

The Irish firm reported a 13% rise in first-half core earnings to $2.2 billion and that it expected that to rise to $5.5 billion for the year against a "continually challenging cost environment".

Profit margins grew by 90 basis points to 14.7% to the end of June.

CRH shares were up 4.3% at 3,266 pence as of 0715 GMT.

The company said resilient demand for infrastructure projects and repair, maintenance and improvement works would boost its U.S. operations, which make up 75% of group earnings and where it is the biggest producer of asphalt for highway construction.

While it added that macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and inflationary cost pressures would continue to test Europe, CFO Jim Mintern said publicly funded infrastructure projects - which make up 50% of CRH's total revenue - would underpin activity from Eastern Europe to the United Kingdom.

Residential projects in Europe are cooling but CRH are not seeing a dramatic fall, Mintern told Reuters.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Jason Neely)