CRH buys fencing producer for $1.9 billion in biggest deal since 2018

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish building materials firm CRH said on Friday it had agreed to buy Barrette Outdoor Living, North America’s leading provider of residential fencing and railing solutions, for an enterprise value of $1.9 billion.

The acquisition follows the $3.8 billion sale by CRH this year of its U.S.-based glass product manufacturing unit. It said the deal for Ohio-based Barrette represented an acquisition multiple of about 10 times core earnings, pre-synergies.

CRH, the world’s second-largest building materials supplier, has concentrated on smaller, bolt on acquisitions since it bought U.S.-based Ash Grove Cement for $3.5 billion in 2018.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Edmund Blair)