Oldcastle Precast developed prestressed concrete post-tension box  girders for the City of Rancho Cucamonga outside of Los Angeles,  California. The bridge includes a 33-foot and a 52-foot girder, together  carrying two railroad tracks over Haven Avenue. Compliance and Ethics 2013 Outlook  Organisation and People Assuming no major financial or energy market dislocations, we expect that  ongoing improvements in our businesses in the Americas combined with  further profit improvement initiatives throughout our operations will outweigh  continuing trading pressures in our European segments, enabling the Group  to achieve progress in 2013. The realigned management structure for our operations in the Americas,  outlined in last year’s Chief Executive Review, is now well embedded and  is, as expected, accelerating the capture of market growth opportunities as  United States construction recovers and is facilitating further streamlining of  common business processes and functions across our businesses.  During 2012 management took the decision to establish a regional CRH  headquarters in Singapore to oversee the expansion of our existing interests in  India and China and to pursue further development opportunities in the wider  region. This office will be led by Ken McKnight, Managing Director Asia, who  has transferred from our Europe Materials Division where he had responsibility  for Europe West and our operations in India and China. Ken will report directly  to Group Chief Operating Officer Albert Manifold while Europe Materials will  continue to support activity in the region from its operating resources. We view  the establishment of the Singapore office as a further step in the evolution of  CRH and an important catalyst for growth in Asia in the medium term.  Distribution  acquisitions in Europe totaled €0.05 billion during 2012 with the  bulk of this expenditure incurred on the expansion of our Sanitary, Heating  and Plumbing channel in Belgium. In contrast to the United States, economic growth in Europe turned  negative in the second quarter and full-year GDP for the European Union  as a whole is estimated to have fallen slightly. Current forecasts suggest  only modest growth at best for 2013. On the positive side, however, the  strong commitment from the European Central Bank to providing support  for peripheral Eurozone economies has resulted in a more stable financial  backdrop which is encouraging from a confidence building perspective and  is an essential prerequisite for European economic recovery. Nevertheless,  2013 will be another challenging year for our European Divisions with  significant actions, as already announced, being implemented to counteract  market weakness.  Total 2012 development spend in the  Products  segment amounted to  €0.27 billion with a focus on RMI and sustainability segments and on the  optimisation of production networks in core markets. In Europe we significantly  expanded our RMI-oriented Shutters & Awnings business through the  acquisition of a major German player while, in North America, businesses  acquired from other public players in our sector served to strengthen core  operations in packaged products, concrete pavers and precast products in  both the United States and Canada.  After a slower second quarter, GDP in the United States picked up strongly  in the third quarter of 2012. However, some once-off factors contributed to  a weaker final quarter with GDP growth currently estimated at approximately  2% for 2012 as a whole. Despite this variable pattern, we believe that the  fundamentals are in place for continued positive momentum in the US  economy in 2013, although the moderate fiscal tightening resulting from  payroll tax increases may weigh somewhat on first-half economic growth.  Against this backdrop we expect our Americas operations to show progress  in 2013.  Despite the worldwide downturn in our sector, the regulatory environment  in which CRH operates is continually changing and placing increased  responsibility on our personnel at all levels throughout the organisation.  Ensuring that our managers and employees act in a manner consistent with  CRH’s core values, and with the various local legal requirements with which  our operations throughout the world must comply, is a responsibility that we  take very seriously. Over the past few years we have enhanced our existing  compliance structures and undertaken a thorough review of the Group’s  Code of Business Conduct to ensure that our procedures and processes  reflect our commitment to integrity, honesty and respect for the law and  that we have a consistency of approach across key governance areas. Our  updated Code of Business Conduct and the subsidiary policies relating  to Ethical Procurement, Anti-Fraud, Anti-Bribery, Shares & Securities and  Competition/Anti-Trust Compliance have been widely circulated throughout  CRH supplemented by intensive compliance briefings and training. CRH 15