Lincoln Elec CEO sees '08 acquisitions

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Welding equipment maker Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc (LECO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) may make a number of acquisitions this year, with a likely focus on emerging markets, the company's CEO said on Monday.

"We would be optimistic about adding acquisitions this year," Chief Executive John Stropki said at the Reuters Manufacturing Summit in Chicago.

Stropki said he was also mildly optimistic that the U.S. economy will not slide into recession this year.

He said Lincoln is looking at a "queue of potential acquisitions" in Eastern Europe, Russia and throughout Asia, in particular in China and India. The company's has begun construction on its first plant in India.

"We are building right now in Chennai, I would speculate that we would acquire multiple plants in India," he said, adding that it would be very challenging to supply broad areas of India from Chennai.

Cleveland-based Lincoln Electric has around $200 million in cash and a credit line of $150 million, but could borrow up to $1 billion without overburdening the company with debt, Stropki said.

The company's debt-to-equity ratio is currently in the high single digits, he added.

Stropki said he expects the oil and natural gas industries will be a significant growth area for Lincoln Electric, in particular in Russia. As order books at shipbuilding yards around the world are full through 2010, demand there should also remain strong, he added.

Stropki said that in the United States the company's automotive and construction businesses are "not doing so well" but make up a relatively small share of Lincoln Electric's overall sales.

He added that he saw the U.S. economy stronger in the second half of the year, but that he did not expect a full-blown slowdown.

"Clearly the first half of the year is going to be slow, I don't think we will have a recession in the first half of the year, I think it will be slow growth," Stropki said. "I think there are just too many strong fundamentals."

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Reporting by Nick Carey; editing by John Wallace and Tim Dobbyn)