CRH chief executive Jim Mintern’s remuneration reached $17.8 million (€15.6 million) last year in his first year at the helm of the building materials and services giant.

The group also confirmed it plans to delist from the London Stock Exchange next month, having said in February it was weighing such a move. It dropped its Irish quotation in 2023 as it moved its main listing to New York.

Mintern’s package, mainly made up of stock awards, marked a significant increase from his $5.7 million compensation in 2024, when he was the chief financial officer of the organisation. His predecessor, Albert Manifold, was paid $13.6 million in his last of 11 years in charge of the group, in 2024.

Mintern’s base salary amounted to $1.75 million last year, while stock awards were valued at $12 million. He also received a bonus of $3.62 million. Other remuneration, including a change in his pension value, came to almost $430,000.

Shares in CRH soared by a third last year to $124.80 a piece. However, they have since lost a fifth of their value, amid a global slump by equities amid the Iran war, which started two weeks ago.

CRH’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) increased by 11 per cent to $7.7 billion last year – more than double the pace of the group’s 5 per cent revenues growth, to $37.4 billion.

“2025 was another year of strong performance and value creation for shareholders, driven by the efforts of all of our employees and the exceptional leadership of Jim Mintern, our chief executive officer, and his senior executive team,” said Lamar McKay, the non-executive chairman of CRH’s compensation committee.

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“The compensation outcomes for the executives reflect significant performance against the rigorous targets during the year.”

CRH hired US executive Nancy Buese as its chief financial officer last May to succeed Mintern. Before the appointment, she had most recently served as CFO of Baker Hughes, a US energy group. Prior to that, she held a similar role between 2016 and 2022 at Newmont Corporation, a gold mining group.

Buese received a one-time $1 million sign-on bonus, bringing her total package to $9.3 million.

Unveiling his medium-term strategy nine months into the job as CEO last September, Mintern set targets for annual revenue growth of 7-9 per cent between out to 2030. He is aiming for the group to post adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) margins of 22-24 per cent over the period.

The margin goal would mark a step up from the rates of 19.5 per cent and 20.5 per cent posted in 2024 and 205, respectively. The company’s margins have doubled over the 11-year period in which CRH was led by Albert Manifold, driven as the group moved from largely being a seller of cement and other base materials into full-scale construction services, with higher pricing power.

CRH said it had invested $4.1 billion on 38 acquisitions in 2025, including the $2.1 billion acquisition of Eco Material Technologies, a US provider of sustainable cement alternatives, which was announced in July 2025. A further $1.7 billion was used to back high-return growth capital expenditure projects to drive organic growth.

The group has forecast full-year net income of $3.9 billion to $4.1 billion in 2026. Mintern predicted that full-year Ebitda would fall between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion.

The group is currently in the middle of a $300 million share buyback programme that is due to complete by the end of this month. It has returned €10 billion to shareholders since 2018.