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Shares in Kingspan, the Irish building supplies group, rose 5 per cent on Monday after its strongest ever six-month trading period on the back of a recovery in European construction markets.

Kingspan reported a 50 per cent increase in its interim trading profit to €167m, well ahead of analysts’ expectations, prompting the company to revise upwards its estimates of full-year performance. Pre-tax profit rose 54 per cent to €154.8m in the first half of the year.

Kingspan, a global producer of insulation products from its base in the small town of Kingscourt in County Cavan, said revenue rose a fifth in the six months to the end of June to €1.47bn.

The rise was helped by acquisitions — the group has spent just over €200m so far this year on buying companies in niche areas of the construction market — but was mainly boosted by strong sales growth, particularly in Europe, where Kingspan has focused its activities.

“It is clear the strength of the first-half performance suggests that our full-year forecast is far too light,” said Davy stockbrokers in a note to investors.

Kingspan’s interim dividend was raised by a quarter.

Gene Murtagh, chief executive, said Kingspan was developing plans to help further grow its business. The company has created a new division focused on materials that filter daylight into buildings following its purchase last month of Essmann, the leading supplier in Germany of products that specialise in “daylighting”, as the filtering technology is known.

Mr Murtagh said Kingspan was also planning to expand the business into the US.

“It’s an opportunity to create a global branded Kingspan business in its own right — it’s a very fragmented business worldwide,” he told the Financial Times.

Mr Murtagh said the creation of a substantial light and air business would take at least five years, but he estimated it would eventually account for between 8 and 10 per cent of the group’s revenue.

Mr Murtagh has been at the helm of Kingspan, which has a market capitalisation of €4.3bn, since 2005. The company was founded by his father; the Murtagh family and management own about 20 per cent of the group’s shares.

“We’re the only supplier worldwide of our product range, so we don’t have competitors globally,” he said. “We’re disrupters — our role is to disrupt the traditional methods of construction and construction materials. Concrete and metal and tiles — they are our competition.”

He also said that while the group is focused on northern Europe and building a greater presence in the US, it was also turning its attention to Asia given the size of the population, high building demand, and investment in manufacturing facilities.