Why Beacon Roofing Supply Stock Jumped 10% on Thursday

Shares of Beacon Roofing Supply (NASDAQ: BECN) closed up 9.8% Thursday, after the company revealed an agreement to add one of the country's largest exterior and interior building products distributors to its business. Specifically, Beacon will be buying CRH plc's (NYSE: CRH) Allied Building Products Corp. subsidiary for $2.624 billion cash.

Dublin, Ireland-based CRH is a $29.9 billion market cap European supplier of building materials -- about 10 times as large as Beacon. But CRH does nearly half its business in the United States. The Allied Building Products subsidiary that Beacon is buying is currently part of the latter business.

In its press release describing the transaction, Beacon noted that bringing Allied in-house will not only grow its roofing supplies business, but also add a wallboard and acoustical ceiling tile wholesale business, making Beacon "the fourth largest ... distributor" of such products "in the U.S., with more than $1 billion of revenue in the interior market category."

Source: Fool.com