BASIS OF PRESENTATION

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

NOTE 1 — BASIS OF PRESENTATION

As used in this report, the term “Company,” except as otherwise indicated by the context, means Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. and its wholly-owned and majority-owned subsidiaries for which it has a controlling interest.  The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X.  Accordingly, these unaudited consolidated financial statements do not include all of the information and notes required by GAAP for complete financial statements.  However, in the opinion of management, these unaudited consolidated financial statements contain all the adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods.  Operating results for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year ending December 31, 2012.

The accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2011 has been derived from the audited financial statements at that date, but does not include all of the information and notes required by GAAP for complete financial statements.  For further information, refer to the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011.

Certain reclassifications have been made to the prior year financial statements to conform to current year classifications.

Translation of Foreign Currencies

The translation of assets and liabilities originally denominated in foreign currencies into U.S. dollars is for consolidation purposes, and does not necessarily indicate that the Company could realize or settle the reported value of those assets and liabilities in U.S. dollars.  Additionally, such a translation does not necessarily indicate that the Company could return or distribute the reported U.S. dollar value of the net equity of its foreign operations to its shareholders.

Venezuela — Highly Inflationary Economy

Venezuela is a highly inflationary economy under GAAP.  As a result, the financial statements of the Company’s Venezuelan operation are reported under highly inflationary accounting rules as of January 1, 2010.  Under highly inflationary accounting, the financial statements of the Company’s Venezuelan operation have been remeasured into the Company’s reporting currency and exchange gains and losses from the remeasurement of monetary assets and liabilities are reflected in current earnings.  In remeasuring the financial statements, the official exchange rate for non-essential goods of 4.3 is used as this is the rate expected to be applicable to dividend repatriations.

Future impacts to earnings of applying highly inflationary accounting for Venezuela on the Company’s consolidated financial statements will be dependent upon movements in the applicable exchange rates between the bolivar and the U.S. dollar and the amount of monetary assets and liabilities included in the Company’s Venezuelan operation’s balance sheet.  The bolivar-denominated monetary net asset position was $21,898 at September 30, 2012 and $6,826 at December 31, 2011.  The increased exposure was due to the limited opportunities to convert bolivars into U.S. dollars.