SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of AptarGroup, Inc. and our subsidiaries. The terms “AptarGroup”, “Aptar”, “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our” as used herein refer to AptarGroup, Inc. and our subsidiaries. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Certain previously reported amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

In the opinion of management, the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (the “Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements”) include all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair statement of consolidated financial position, results of operations, comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows for the interim periods presented. The accompanying Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared by the Company, pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations, although we believe that the disclosures made are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. Also, certain financial position data included herein was derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 but does not include all disclosures required by U.S. GAAP. Accordingly, these Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes should be read in conjunction with the audited Consolidated Financial Statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. The results of operations of any interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year.

During the quarter ended June 30, 2018, primarily based on published estimates, which indicate that Argentina's three-year cumulative inflation rate has exceeded 100%, we concluded that Argentina has become a highly inflationary economy. Beginning July 1, 2018, we have applied highly inflationary accounting for our Argentinian subsidiaries. We have changed the functional currency from the Argentinian peso to the U.S. dollar. Local currency monetary assets and liabilities have been remeasured into U.S. dollars using exchange rates as of the latest balance sheet date, with remeasurement adjustments and other transaction gains and losses recognized in net earnings. Our Argentinian operations contributed approximately 2.0% of consolidated net assets and revenues at and for the three months ended March 31, 2019.

LEASES

We determine if an arrangement is a lease at inception. Operating lease assets are included in operating lease right-of-use (“ROU”) assets and liabilities are included in Accounts payable and accrued liabilities and operating lease liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets. Finance leases are included in property, plant and equipment, current maturities of long-term obligations and long-term obligations in our consolidated balance sheets.

ROU assets represent our right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent our obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. Operating lease ROU assets and liabilities are recognized at commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. We use the implicit rate when readily determinable. As most of our leases do not provide an implicit rate, we use our incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at the commencement date of the lease in determining the present value of lease payments. The operating lease ROU asset includes any lease payments made as well as initial direct costs incurred and excludes lease incentives. Our lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise that option. Lease expense for operating lease payments is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

We have lease agreements with lease and non-lease components, which are generally accounted for separately. For certain equipment leases, we account for the lease and non-lease components as a single lease component. We have elected not to recognize right-of-use assets and lease liabilities that arise from short-term leases (a lease whose term is 12 months or less and does not include a purchase option that we are reasonably certain to exercise).

Certain vehicle lease contracts include guaranteed residual value that is considered in the determination of lease classification. The probability of having to satisfy a residual value guarantee is not considered for the purpose of lease classification, but is considered when measuring a lease liability.

ADOPTION OF RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

Changes to U.S. GAAP are established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) in the form of Accounting Standards Updates (“ASUs”) to the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification.

In February 2016, the FASB issued a new standard related to leases to increase transparency and comparability among organizations by requiring the recognition of ROU assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet. Most prominent among the changes in the standard is the recognition of ROU assets and lease liabilities by lessees for those leases classified as operating leases. Under the standard, disclosures are required to meet the objective of enabling users of financial statements to assess the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. We adopted the standard effective January 1, 2019 using a modified retrospective transition, using the effective date method. Under this method, financial results reported in periods prior to 2019 are not recast. We elected the package of practical expedients permitted under the transition guidance within the new standard, which among other things, allows companies to carry forward their historical lease classification. We also implemented internal controls and key system functionality to enable the preparation of financial information on adoption. The most significant impact was the recognition of ROU assets and lease liabilities for operating leases, as our accounting for finance leases remained substantially unchanged. The impact of adoption of the standard to previously reported results is shown below.


		Balance at				Balance at
		December 31,				January 1,
		2018		Adjustments		2019
Consolidated Balance Sheets
Operating lease right-of-use assets	$	—	$	83,222	$	83,222
Prepaid and other		118,245		(1,383)		116,862
Property, plant and equipment		991,613		5,876		997,489
Current maturities of long-term obligations, net of unamortized debt issuance costs		62,678		2,631		65,309
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities		525,199		20,508		545,707
Operating lease liabilities		—		61,331		61,331
Long-term obligations, net of unamortized debt issuance costs		1,125,993		3,245		1,129,238

In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-02, which provides guidance on the reclassification of certain tax effects from accumulated other comprehensive income. This guidance allows for the reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”). The new standard is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018. We elected to early adopt this standard in the fourth quarter of 2018. As part of this adoption, we elected to reclassify $6.7 million of stranded income tax effects of the TCJA from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2018.

Other accounting standards that have been issued by the FASB or other standards-setting bodies did not have a material impact on our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

RETIREMENT OF COMMON STOCK

During the first quarter of 2019, we repurchased 159 thousand shares of common stock, all of which were returned to treasury stock. During the first quarter of 2018, we repurchased 189 thousand shares of common stock, of which 144 thousand shares were immediately retired. Common stock was reduced by the number of shares retired at $0.01 par value per share. We allocate the excess purchase price over par value between additional paid-in capital and retained earnings.

INCOME TAXES

We compute taxes on income in accordance with the tax rules and regulations of the many taxing authorities where income is earned. The income tax rates imposed by these taxing authorities may vary substantially. Taxable income may differ from pre-tax income for financial accounting purposes. To the extent that these differences create temporary differences between the tax basis of an asset or liability and our reported amount in the financial statements, an appropriate provision for deferred income taxes is made.

All of our non-U.S. earnings are subject to U.S. taxation, either from the transition tax enacted in the U.S. by the TCJA on accumulated non-U.S. earnings as of the end of 2017 or the global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”) provisions on non-U.S. earnings thereafter. We maintain our assertion that the cash and distributable reserves at our non-U.S. affiliates are indefinitely reinvested. We will provide for the necessary withholding and local income taxes when management decides that an affiliate should make a distribution. These decisions are made taking into consideration the financial requirements of the non-U.S. affiliates and the global cash management goals of the Company.

We provide a liability for the amount of unrecognized tax benefits from uncertain tax positions. This liability is provided whenever we determine that a tax benefit will not meet a more-likely-than-not threshold for recognition. See Note 5 - Income Taxes for more information.

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for income taxes, which may include its accounting policies for recognizing and measuring deferred tax assets and liabilities and related valuation allowances, recognizing investment tax credits, operating loss carryforwards, tax credit carryforwards, and other carryforwards, methodologies for determining its effective income tax rate and the characterization of interest and penalties in the financial statements.

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