Ireland-based CRH to buy Ashland Paving

The building materials company will buy the U.S. firm for $1.3 billion.
DUBLIN -- Irish building materials group CRH announced its biggest-ever acquisition on Monday, saying it had agreed to buy U.S. company Ashland Paving and Construction Inc. (APAC) for $1.3 billion.
CRH said it expected the acquisition, which will be financed using debt, to be completed before the end of August.
CRH Chief Executive Liam O'Mahony described the buy - expected to contribute positively to CRH earnings - as a major milestone in the development of CRH's Americas Materials unit.
"We aim to build on this significant new platform through enhancing the materials focus of APAC's business and through the application of the Americas Materials Division's vertically integrated approach to aggregates, asphalt and highway construction," he said in a statement.
CRH said in June it was in was in talks with APAC's parent company Ashland Inc. to buy the unit, pushing shares in both companies higher.
APAC, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., employs about 9,700 people and has extensive operations in 14 midwestern and southern states.
In the 12 months to end-June, sales totaled $2.9 billion with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately $220 million, before charging depreciation and amortization of $106 million.
CRH's Americas Materials division is the No. 1 U.S. asphalt producer, operating in 32 states.
It said the APAC deal represented a major expansion into new materials markets in midwestern and southern U.S. states and significantly increased its position as a top-tier aggregates and leading asphalt producer in the United States.