CRH PLC (CRH) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

CRH PLC (CRH) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

I'm the Finance Director for the Group, and I'm joined on stage this morning by our thee division Presidents; Randy Lake, Americas Materials; Onne van der Weijde, Europe Materials; Keith Haas, Building Products.. The strong cash conversion, in addition to the proceeds that we have generated from our divestment activity, has further strengthened our balance sheet, and we end the year with a very strong balance sheet.. Also included in our performance, is that continued focus on business improvement.. Our EBITDA margin is 230 basis points ahead of last year, or on a like-for-like basis were up 50 basis points in terms of progress.. Active portfolio management is also a key part of our value creation.. What you see announced this morning, is we are changing our reporting currency to US dollars effective January of this year, and we will talk about that later on.. The margin improvement is a good indication of the progress we're making on our performance improvement journey across the business.. The performance improvement journey is also reflected in the strong like-for-like growth in our earnings per share, up 25% over last year.. Now for me as the Finance Director, the number on this slide that