Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good day, and welcome to the CRH First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. My name is Krista, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jim Mintern, CRH Chief Executive Officer, to begin the conference. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone. Jim Mintern here, CEO of CRH, and you're all very welcome to our Q1 2026 results presentation and conference call. Joining me on the call is Nancy Buese, our CFO; Randy Lake, our COO; and Tom Holmes, our Head of Investor Relations. Before we get started, I'll hand over to Tom for some brief opening remarks.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to Slide 2, shown here on screen. During our presentation, we'll be making some forward-looking statements relating to our future plans and expectations.

These are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to the factors outlined on this slide. For more details, please refer to our annual report and other SEC filings, which are available on our website. I'll now hand you back to Jim, Nancy and Randy.

Thanks, Tom. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we will take you through a brief presentation of our first quarter results, highlighting the key components of our performance for the first 3 months of the year as well as providing you with an update on our expectations for the year as a whole. We are also going to discuss our recent portfolio management and capital allocation activities and why we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth and value creation for our shareholders. First, on Slide 4, some key messages from our results announcement.

I am pleased to report a strong first quarter performance backed by our superior strategy, unmatched scale and connected portfolio of businesses. Overall, we delivered further growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA and margin compared to the prior year period, reflecting good momentum from early season project activity, disciplined commercial execution and positive contributions from acquisitions. We remain focused on allocating and reallocating capital for higher growth as we continue to build a connected portfolio. In the year-to-date, we have agreed to divest of 3 noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion, reflecting our relentless focus on the active management of our portfolio to maximize shareholder value.

We have also announced that we are investing approximately $900 million in 9 value-accretive acquisitions. The largest of these is an agreement to acquire Axius Water, further strengthening our position as a leading U.S. water infrastructure player, and I will take you through that in further detail later in the presentation. We also continue to return significant amounts of cash to our shareholders. Our ongoing share buyback program has returned approximately $400 million so far this year.

And today, we are commencing a further quarterly tranche of $300 million to be completed no later than the 28th of July. I am also pleased to report that the Board has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, representing an increase of 5% on the prior year, in line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth. Notwithstanding the current macroeconomic uncertainty, the underlying demand environment across our key markets remains positive, and we are pleased to reaffirm our financial guidance for 2026, reflecting a strong start to the year as well as the net impact of divestitures and acquisitions agreed in the year-to-date.

Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and no further major dislocations in the geopolitical or macroeconomic environment, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH. Turning now to Slide 5 and our financial highlights for the first 3 months of the year. Overall, a robust performance and a good start to the season with revenues, adjusted EBITDA and margin all well ahead of the prior year period. Total revenues of $7.4 billion were 9% ahead, supported by good underlying demand, disciplined commercial execution and contributions from acquisitions.

This translated into adjusted EBITDA of $586 million, 18% ahead and a further 70 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting continued operational improvements and strong cost discipline across our businesses. Turning now to Slide 6. And here, you can see our growth algorithm, which drives our performance year after year. As the leading infrastructure player in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on 3 large and growing megatrends: transportation, water and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant growth and value creation for our business going forward.

Next, the CRH Winning Way, the force multiplier that enables us to capitalize on these growing infrastructure megatrends. This is what really sets CRH apart. Through our Winning Way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus, driving leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement. As responsible stewards of our shareholders' capital, we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions of scale in attractive high-growth markets.

All of this is supported by 4 key enablers: customer centricity, empowered teams, unmatched scale and our connected portfolio of businesses. Overall, our growth algorithm underpins our proven track record of consistent long-term delivery and our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry. Now at this point, I will ask Randy to take you through the performance of each of our businesses.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. Turning to Slide 8 and starting with Americas Materials Solutions, which is supported by our strategic alignment with growing infrastructure megatrends. Overall, our business had a strong start to the year.

Total revenues were 21% ahead of the prior year period, with robust volumes across all product lines, reflecting good early season project activity, strong commercial execution and contributions from acquisitions. In Essential Materials, first quarter revenues were 31% ahead. Our aggregates volumes increased by 14%, while pricing was 1% behind, reflecting geographic and project-related mix effects. On a mix-adjusted basis, our aggregate pricing was 5% ahead.

Cement volumes were 10% ahead, while pricing declined by 1%, reflecting regional variances across our operating footprint. In Road Solutions, growth in both asphalt and ready-mixed concrete volumes, along with increased paving activity, resulted in Q1 revenues 16% ahead of the prior year period. Now let me take you through some examples of the projects that have been really driving good early season activity across our business, leveraging our scale, capabilities and connected portfolio. In our Road Solutions business, we're involved in the widening and reconstruction of I-95 in South Carolina, supplying over 0.5 million tons of asphalt and 250,000 tons of aggregates.

In the reindustrialization space, we're active in the construction of a large chip plant in Boise, Idaho, where we're supplying over 0.5 million tons of aggregates and cementitious materials through our fully connected offering. We're also participating in the construction of a large data center facility in Michigan, delivering over 1.2 million tons of aggregates in the first quarter alone. Of course, it's worth noting that this is the seasonally less significant quarter for our Americas Materials Solutions business. But looking ahead and as the construction season gets fully underway across many of our markets, I'm encouraged by the positive momentum we're seeing in our bidding activity and our backlogs.

Next to Americas Building Solutions on Slide 9, where our business delivered a solid performance in the first quarter despite contending with adverse weather conditions in many regions and subdued new-build residential activity. Revenues in our Building & Infrastructure Solutions business were 4% ahead of the prior year, supported by positive data center and utility infrastructure demand. In Outdoor Living Solutions, while the underlying demand environment for residential repair and remodel activity remains resilient, a delayed start to the season due to adverse weather resulted in Q1 revenues 3% behind the prior year.

Moving to International Solutions now on Slide 10, where our business delivered a strong first quarter performance, supported by good pricing momentum and disciplined cost control. Total revenue growth of 5% translated into 32% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 130 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting improved operational efficiencies and contributions from acquisitions. In Western Europe, activity levels were supported by infrastructure and reindustrialization demand, while in Central and Eastern Europe, activity levels are recovering following adverse winter weather across the region.

In Australia, our business continues to perform very well, benefiting from positive underlying demand, operational improvements and synergy delivery from recent acquisitions. So overall, a strong start to the year for our business. And at this point, I'll hand you over to Jim to take you through our recent capital allocation activities in further detail.

Thanks, Randy. Active portfolio management is a continuous process in CRH. We are constantly allocating and reallocating our capital to maximize value for our shareholders. As you can see here on Slide 12, in the year-to-date, we have agreed 3 strategic divestitures of noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion.

In addition to the previously announced divestiture of Construction Accessories, we have reached agreements to divest of our Lawn & Garden business, a manufacturer and supplier of mulch, soil and decorative stone, for $1.1 billion and also MoistureShield, a manufacturer of composite decking. The divestiture of MoistureShield closed in early April, while the Construction Accessories and Lawn & Garden transactions are expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Together, these transactions demonstrate our commitment to the active management of our portfolio and the reallocation of capital into higher growth, more connected businesses to maximize value for our shareholders.

At this point, on Slide 13, I would like to provide an overview of our U.S. water infrastructure platform, 1 of our 4 key growth platforms, which we highlighted during last year's Investor Day. We are a leading player in this attractive high-growth market, benefiting from resilient public funding and nondiscretionary investment. Reindustrialization and an aging water infrastructure network with significant investment needs are the key drivers of demand. And with approximately 1/3 of the U.S. water infrastructure more than 50 years old, the need to upgrade the systems that collect, transport and treat water is critical.

Our national reach and expertise give us a significant advantage as investment in this area accelerates. And as you can see on the slide, we have strategically focused on 2 key areas: water transmission and water quality, the fastest-growing segments of the over $100 billion U.S. water ecosystem. In addition to a robust funding backdrop, the market also remains very fragmented with significant runway for further growth through value-accretive acquisitions, enabling us to leverage our unmatched scale, connected portfolio and proven growth capabilities. Our water infrastructure platform is also closely connected to our leading aggregates, cementitious and road platforms.

Over 80% of the products we produce in our water business consume aggregates and cementitious materials. And since over 85% of roads require water management systems, the strength of our water platform reinforces the benefits of our connected portfolio and shared customer base. Turning now to Slide 14. In the water quality space, we are pleased to announce the expansion of our existing water infrastructure offering with an agreement to acquire Axius Water, a leading provider of water quality and nutrient removal solutions in North America for approximately $700 million. This acquisition will further strengthen our existing position as a leading water infrastructure player in the United States.

With a strong, experienced management team and best-in-class customer-centric design and engineering capabilities, it is an excellent fit and highly complementary to our existing water platform. Integrating Axius into our connected portfolio will enhance our customer offering and drive significant commercial, operational and self-supply synergies. It will also strengthen our IP portfolio across the water value chain through its extensive R&D capabilities. Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to complete in the second quarter of the year, and we will keep you updated as that progresses.

Overall, our agreement to acquire Axius, along with a further 8 value-accretive acquisitions completed in the year-to-date, demonstrates the continued build-out of our connected portfolio and our commitment to allocating capital into attractive high-growth markets. I will now ask Nancy to take you through why we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth and value creation for our shareholders.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. As you can see here on Slide 16, we believe our unmatched scale and connected portfolio delivers higher and more consistent long-term growth. As the #1 infrastructure play in North America, we benefit from increased exposure to publicly funded construction, which is less volatile and more predictable compared to other areas of construction.

We've built leading positions in attractive high-growth markets aligned with 3 secular megatrends: transportation, water and reindustrialization, which together represent one of the most compelling growth opportunities in decades. We drive performance excellence through a culture of continuous improvement, replicated at scale across each of our 4,000 locations. You can see this in our first quarter performance with further margin expansion driven by the operational improvements and strategic growth CapEx investments we've made across our business. Supported by our strong balance sheet and cash generation capabilities, we expect to have approximately $40 billion of financial capacity over the next 5 years to invest for future growth and deliver further returns to our shareholders.

Our fully connected offering across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water also enables us to become more deeply embedded with our customers, driving higher pull-through demand for our Essential Materials and capturing a greater share of wallet on construction projects. It also results in lower capital intensity and a more variable cost base, enabling us to adapt quickly to any challenges that come our way while maximizing growth, cash generation and return on capital. Combined with our unmatched scale, the connected nature of our portfolio provides us with superior growth opportunities, multiple avenues to grow both organically and through acquisitions.

We have a strong recurring M&A pipeline and the ability to deliver enhanced synergies supported by our proven growth capabilities. In fact, when we look at our track record of synergy delivery in recent years, we typically achieve a 2 to 2.5x reduction in our entry multiple, which really highlights the value we can create for our shareholders. A recent example of this is our 2024 acquisition of the Hunter cement plant in Texas, which has delivered synergies well ahead of our original expectations and our typical run rate. This was driven by operational improvements, increased self-supply and logistics optimization.

Similarly, although earlier in the integration process, our 2025 acquisition of Eco Material is also performing strongly with some good early wins on synergy delivery. Overall, our unmatched scale and connected portfolio enables us to deliver higher and more consistent long-term growth. On Slide 17, you can see the consistency of our performance over the last decade. In addition to growing our top line, we have delivered 15% compound annual growth in adjusted EBITDA, approximately 110 basis points of average annual margin expansion and 18% compound annual growth in diluted earnings per share.

Our track record across each of these financial metrics demonstrates our ability to deliver consistent long-term growth and performance. And as you can see, from a total shareholder return perspective, the story is just as compelling. Over the same time frame, we've generated a compound annual total shareholder return of 19%, highlighting our position as a leading compounder of capital and a powerful platform for shareholder value creation.

Thanks, Nancy. Now before I provide an update on our financial expectations for the full year, let me share our latest thoughts on the outlook across our markets. On to Slide 19 and first to transportation, where the demand backdrop is robust, supported by the continued rollout of federal funding through the IIJA, where approximately 50% of highway funds are yet to be deployed. State-level funding is also strong with 2026 DOT budgets up 6% on the prior year.

In fact, 2026 is expected to be a record year for investment in transportation infrastructure, which bodes well for our business given our unmatched scale and market-leading position. We remain encouraged by the progress being made in Congress regarding a multiyear reauthorization of highway funding with continued bipartisan support for increased infrastructure investment in the years ahead. In our International business, we expect robust demand in infrastructure to continue, supported by significant investment from government and EU funding programs. We also expect to see continued demand for water infrastructure with strong growth projected in the areas of transmission and water quality.

In reindustrialization, we expect continued strong demand for our large-scale manufacturing and data center investment in both the U.S. and our international markets. And with the benefits of our unmatched scale and connected customer offering, we are well positioned for growth in this area going forward. In the residential sector, we expect repair and remodel demand in the U.S. to remain resilient, while new-build activity remains subdued as a result of ongoing affordability challenges. As we have said in the past, this is not a demand issue, and we believe the long-term fundamentals in this market remain very attractive, supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of underbuild.

In summary, the overall trend is positive for our business with our strategic focus on growing infrastructure megatrends and the benefits of the CRH Winning Way, leaving us uniquely positioned to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities that lie ahead. Turning now to Slide 20. And against that backdrop, we have reaffirmed our financial guidance for 2026, reflecting a strong start to the year as well as the net impact of divestitures and acquisitions agreed in the year-to-date. Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and no further major dislocations in the geopolitical or macroeconomic environment, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion, net income between $3.9 billion and $4.1 billion and diluted earnings per share between $5.60 and $6.05, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH.

It's still very early in the construction season, but we will update you on our expectations as the year unfolds and as the season gets fully underway across our markets. So that concludes our presentation today. I will now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.

Congrats on the results. My question is just if you can provide further color on your guidance for this year, especially after these transactions that you did and the underlying assumptions that you have.

Good to hear you. I might ask Nancy maybe to come back at the end just on some of the detail, the puts and takes in terms of the full year guidance, but very pleased this morning to be reaffirming our full year guidance, which is really reflecting the strong start we've had to the year in Q1. And at this stage of the year, what we look for is that all the key building blocks are really in place early in the season to deliver on the guidance. And what we're actually seeing across our markets right now is a positive demand backdrop. We've seen it in the Q1 performance and into March and April with strong early season project activity.

And we're seeing good growth across areas such as our roads and reindustrialization, which are performing well. I think, again, the guidance is supported by the continued rollout of the IIJA and very strong local state funding. And that's providing us with really good backlogs at this point of the year, which are nicely up year-on-year. In addition, we've had a really good start from a pricing perspective.

Pricing momentum across all our businesses has been good in the first quarter with really strong execution across our commercial teams. And we've had a very good winter maintenance program as well this season. And that kind of gives us the confidence in terms of giving the guidance today and for another year of margin expansion. So putting all that together, pleased to reiterate the guidance for the year with adjusted EBITDA between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion.

Nancy?

As Jim said, it's been a really busy start from a portfolio perspective. We've had $1.9 billion of divestments announced and about $900 million of acquisitions. So when you think about the scope impact for 2026, we would expect about $200 million of net incremental EBITDA contribution. And just as a reminder, that's unchanged from our previous guidance.

So with all the ins and outs, the previous guidance had already included the divestment of the Construction Accessories business. So now that's also reflecting the impact of the further acquisitions and divestments that we announced today.

Your next question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

I wanted to ask you about just what we're seeing in energy costs. And with the energy price spike, how are you thinking about the impact on your vertically integrated business model and the extent to which your hedging programs allow you to mitigate that impact?

David, yes, clearly, we've seen a lot of volatility and spikes in energy in recent months. But maybe first to kind of contextualize it and kind of size it, for us, energy is approximately about 5% of our total annual revenues. And as we would have said on kind of previous earnings calls, we have a very well managed, well -- kind of, very mature hedging policy in place, and we typically cover out on a kind of rolling 9-month basis. And that -- what that gives us is really good visibility for our energy costs for the year ahead.

And right now, we're kind of focusing on our guidance, that we just reaffirmed this morning, and really looking for another year of margin expansion. I might ask Randy, though, maybe just to give a bit of a flavor as to how the teams -- the commercial teams are responding in the field to this recent energy spike.

Yes. I'd say the team, certainly, we do this on a market-by-market basis, but really experienced commercial teams who focus certainly on value delivery, and we've dealt with periods of volatility before where we've seen significant spikes and shocks. But our focus really is on a market-by-market basis, making sure that we recover the increases, any increase we would experience in input costs, and fundamentally protecting margins. It's about advancing those to our expectations that we're calling out even today in terms of growing margins.

Additionally, I'd say we have already started kind of midyear price increases in a very targeted way. If that uncertainty continues, we'll continue to evolve that strategy. But we're playing off the front foot, being very proactive in the area, and the teams have done a terrific job, again, about protecting those margins.

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi.

Jim, just circling back to your full year guidance, could you talk a little bit more about sort of the underlying assumptions for aggs and cement volume and price assumptions for the year?

Sure. Absolutely, Anthony. Good to hear from you. Listen, I'll ask Randy maybe to give you the specifics by market and volume and prices. But as I said kind of in the opening question, a really good start to the year, with overall strong underlying demand. We see it in our backlogs and a really good start to the year across all the businesses from a pricing perspective. But maybe, Randy?

Yes. I think we called it out in the presentation. Certainly, Q1 is off to a really good start. So volumes up on agg, 14%; cement, 10%.

I think Jim mentioned it, the volume within the context of our backlog, that really gives us that 6- to 9-month window in terms of underlying activity levels. And we continue to see both bidding activity, importantly, what we're winning, both on a revenue and then volume standpoint, improve year-over-year. So it really reaffirms kind of what we called out at the beginning of the year, which we anticipated from an agg standpoint, low single-digit improvement in volume and supported by mid-single digit in pricing. And maybe just calling out the price on the agg side.

I think for me and our commercial teams, the most important metric in Q1, because you can get some volatility, is really around the adjusted -- mix-adjusted pricing, and we see that at 5%. That's indicative of what we should expect to see for the full year. So that -- the teams have done a terrific job. It's a metric we lean heavily on at this time of year.

So good to see the progress there and really supports our midyear single-digit price expectations for the full year. Looking at cement in the Americas, in particular, again, good momentum, good backlog, good early start to the season. Certainly, you saw the pricing move back a bit in totality. You're going to see regional differences.

We're coming off 3 exceptional years, strong years in terms of pricing. But when we look at the backlogs, again, I'd say we would expect low single-digit improvement in volumes and low single-digit improvement in pricing as well. So teams are doing a nice job there. On an international basis, Europe and Australia, the weather certainly impacted our business in Europe, in particular, in January and February, but it's recovered very nicely in March and April, reflecting good project backlog and underlying demand that really gives us visibility in terms of the full year, again, low single-digit volume improvement in our International platform and mid-single-digit improvement in pricing.

And you can see that coming through in Q1, a 3% improvement from last year. So all the signals are strong and really does iterate -- and reiterate kind of our focus and the guidance we gave in terms of the demand picture.

Your next question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stephens.

As typical, you guys continue to be very active in portfolio optimization. Jim, maybe you could give us maybe a little additional color on the year-to-date divestments? And then also, how should we be thinking about divestitures or divestments going forward?

Sure, Trey. Good to hear you. Yes. Listen, a very good first quarter in terms of portfolio activity, right?

We're very pleased with it. And when we look at portfolio activity in CRH, it's a continuous process. It's not a one-off event. It's something we continuously do.

And we announced this morning that 3 strategic divestitures of noncore businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion. Now every capital allocation decision, whether it's on the investment side or the divestment side or growth CapEx, in CRH is always looked at through the lens of trying to maximize shareholder value. Now these were good businesses that we're divesting of, but we really had the opportunity, we took the opportunity, to recycle the proceeds into faster-growing and connected platforms. And in this case, taking the opportunity to increase our exposure to the kind of faster-growing water infrastructure sector.

And I think going forward, it should be more of the same, Trey. You should expect us to continue to look for opportunities to optimize our portfolio.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners.

You mentioned -- Jim, I think as you mentioned in your prepared remarks, a positive outlook on the next reauthorization of IIJA. Maybe you could share -- you or Randy can share a little bit of view on what you're hearing from your contacts, size of what will be provided, maybe timing? Would there be any issues you think that would disrupt later this year into early next, any project bidding if there's a continuing resolution, or Congress doesn't get its act together before September 30?

Yes. Good question. I guess maybe take a step back first. Jim called it out in the opening remarks in terms of the underlying funding with IIJA yet to be deployed, almost 50% has yet to hit the street.

And you combine that with really the proactive measures that the states have taken over the last number of years, and you have a really strong view in terms of not only short-term but long-term funding and the demand environment. I mentioned on the pricing side, what gives us the optimism around the ability to deliver is certainly our backlogs. We are seeing, and we track this every week, kind of the quantum that we're bidding continue to grow. We're winning our fair share.

Revenues and overall volumes are improving year-over-year. So you're seeing the benefits of both IIJA and the states coming through nicely. I think what we're hearing is, there's positive conversations, both from the administration and from Congress, both in the House and the Senate. I think fundamentally, there's this understanding and appreciation of the need for the investment.

It's historically been bipartisan. There's no change in terms of the conversations that are happening today in and around that. I think there's also an understanding that there needs to be a meaningful step-up in the investment in core infrastructure, which is great for us when we talk about roads and bridges and highways, that's core infrastructure. And so there's alignment both in the administration and Congress around that.

So I think we're optimistic that a bill will get passed in the second half of the year. In terms of the quantum, I mean, there's numbers all over the place. I think fundamentally, what we believe and what we hear is that it will be a step-up, certainly a meaningful step-up from what we have today. And I think more importantly is the underlying understanding that we need to have that kind of level of investment.

I guess, to your question, if they can't reach a new piece of legislation? We've been here before, we call -- go into what they call continuing resolution. I think what would be interesting about that is that we're coming off peak levels of investment in terms of the IIJA, a significant step-up in '26 from '25. So you're coming from record levels that will continue into '27. That gives us a lot of surety -- and more importantly, our customers, the states, a lot of surety in terms of not only volume and demand in '26, but into '27 as well. So again, I think there's great support, good momentum and conversations.

All those things will lead one way or the other to higher level of investment and good outlook for our business.

Your next question comes from the line of Colin Sheridan with Davy.

You had covered off the energy side pretty well on the cost front. I was just wondering if you could maybe give us an update on the more general cost environment and maybe an update on the winter-fill program as well.

Yes. Sure, Colin. Listen, as we said in February and really seen us continue to see it, we're seeing inflation in other cost items beyond energy also. And it's mainly in the same areas, again, in terms of labor, raw materials, maintenance and subcontractors.

And again, overall, we're continuing to expect kind of mid-single-digit inflation in 2026 across those categories. Now that really highlights the importance of the continued price momentum that we've been touching on earlier in the call as well. And that together gives us that outlook of margin expansion for the year. Now in terms of the winter-fill program this year, in 2026, yes, if you take a step back first, it is one of our key competitive advantages that we have as part of our Roads business.

And it is unique to CRH, our off-season storage capability at scale. We have the ability and we do -- we store about half our annual liquid requirement we accumulated off-season. And we've built up that capacity over several decades at this point in time. And it really is one of the benefits of having that scale in our Road business and our connected portfolio.

Now what does it give us? It gives us kind of 2 key strategic advantages, right? First is on the procurement side, right? We have the ability to acquire at scale, off-season with good procurement advantages, and we will get certainty of cost before we head into the season.

And it also gives us security of supply, right? In certain parts of our business, you have a kind of limited enough paving season that runs from about now to Thanksgiving. So it's important that we have the product available to meet the kind of backlogs and demand we have. So this year, we've had a very well-executed winter-fill program.

We are exactly where we want to be right now as the season kind of shifts into top gear, and we're well positioned for another strong year of growth in our Roads business in 2026.

We have time for one more question, and that question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.

As we close today's call, just one follow-up really more on getting further clarification and color, more importantly, on your acquisitions year-to-date. And as you think about the divestitures, which were, as you said, noncore and then the addition of Axius, how does the current pipeline of acquisitions look? And maybe give a little bit more color of how that fits into the broad strategy that you outlined in your Investor Day last September.

Sure, Kathryn, absolutely. Yes, listen, we've had a good start to the year in Q1, right, from an M&A perspective with 9 acquisitions announced for a total consideration of $900 million. And really, they're spread across the 4 connected platforms, across aggregates, cementitious, roads and water. And all of these platforms, they're beneficiaries of large and growing infrastructure megatrends that we called out on our Investor Day.

Now maybe first, just before we talk about Axius, just briefly to give an overview of our kind of water infrastructure platform. For us, it's a highly attractive and a core growth platform. And it operates in high-growth markets, which are supported by very strong secular tailwinds. It's also a sector with very significant investment needs, particularly in the U.S. after decades of underinvestment in this particular space.

And it's a sector which has robust public funding backdrop. Now over the last 50 years, we've been building out a leading position in the water infrastructure place, primarily for us, focusing on 2 key areas around transmission and water quality. Now this morning, we announced the acquisition of Axius, so maybe looking at that. It's an excellent fit for existing water infrastructure business, and it's really consistent with our connected water strategy and kind of strengthens our customer offering in the water quality area in particular.

What it does is making us more deeply embedded with our customers. It's increasing our share of wallet on water infrastructure projects and particularly on Axius, from a synergy perspective, Kathryn, there's really good opportunity primarily from the commercial side, but also on the operational and in terms of self-supply synergies across our connected portfolio by being able to supply across some of the other platforms into Axius as well. Now maybe the last part of the question. I think the pipeline right now.

It's strong, Kathryn, right? I think, again, with our unmatched scale and the connected portfolio, we have significant optionality for where we deploy capital. And you've seen that over the last 12 months, right, where we've continued to invest across each of the 4 platforms. In the U.S., in terms of aggregates, we announced a deal of North American Aggregates last year.

The deal last year was Eco Material, cementitious deal towards that in September 2025. Talley Construction in the Roads business last year. And in terms of the water platform, we did the investment in VODA.ai and now the Axius deal. So the pipeline is strong right now. What we're doing consistently is that we're continuing to build backlogs of optionality across each of those 4 platforms.

But again, every capital allocation decision will be looked at through the lens of maximizing shareholder value. And over the next 5 years, with an estimated $40 billion of the financial capacity, we're really well positioned to continue to deliver growth and value creation by continuing to deploy that capital across those 4 growth platforms and regions. Well, that is all we have time for today. Thank you for all your attention.

And as always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations team. We look forward to updating you again in July when we will report our results for the second quarter of 2026. Thank you, and have a good day and stay safe. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.