Building materials giant CRH has spent close to €1 billion on acquisitions over the past six months.

The group also announced that chief executive Liam O'Mahony is to stand down at the end of next year. It will name his successor in summer 2008.

The company yesterday said that it had spent €395 million on 31 acquisitions over the past six months. This was in addition to the purchase of Swiss builders' merchant Gétaz Romang in May, a 50 per cent stake in Denizli Cement in Turkey, the remaining 50 per cent of Paver Systems in the US which it did not own and the Harbin Sanling Cement company in China.

The group said that the transactions it announced brought the total spend on acquisitions and investments in the first half of 2007 to almost €1 billion.

Commenting on the developments, Mr O'Mahony said: "Following the record net spend of €2.1 billion reported in 2006, the strong development momentum has carried into 2007, with a total of 35 transactions completed in the first six months of the year."

He added that the period had seen the group take its first steps into China and Turkey.

The group made its acquisitions across all its divisions. Europe Materials spent €50 million buying businesses in Poland and Portugal. Its Portuguese joint venture, Secil, increased its shareholding in Secil Martinanca by 45.8 per cent to 97 per cent. Secil also bought a 21.9 per cent stake in the Lebanese cement producer Ciment de Sibline, raising its holding in that to 50.5 per cent.

Its Europe Products division bought nine companies in France, Poland, Scandinavia and the UK for a total of €68 million. In April, CRH exercised its right to buy the remaining 75 per cent of Ergon Poland, in which it has held a 25 per cent stake since it bought the Belgian Ergon Group in mid-2004.

Its Americas Materials division spent €24 million on four transactions. Americas Products spent €175 million on five acquisitions and a buyout while Americas Distribution spent €5 million. In an interim trading statement, released yesterday, CRH said it had had a particularly strong start in Europe, which significantly outweighed the more challenging conditions it has been encountering in the US.

Earlier this year the group announced that it was reducing dividend cover to allow it to return more cash to shareholders. Its statement yesterday said that its 2007 interim dividend will be significantly higher than in 2006, reflecting its new policy.

Mr O'Mahony said that the group still had an active pipeline of acquisitions. "We expect to deliver strongly in terms of both profit growth and development activity for 2007 as a whole," he said.