PENSION PLANS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

PENSION PLANS

PENSION PLANS

Note 8 PENSION PLANS

The Company sponsors defined benefit pension plans that cover substantially all of its French and German employees. Plan benefits are provided in accordance with local statutory requirements. Benefits are based on years of service and employee compensation levels. The plans are unfunded. Pension liabilities and charges to expense are based upon various assumptions, updated quarterly, including discount rates, future salary increases, employee turnover, and mortality rates.

The Company’s French pension plan provides for termination benefits paid to covered French employees only at retirement, and consists of approximately one to five months of salary. The Company’s German pension plan provides for defined benefit payouts for covered German employees’ following retirement.

The aggregate net pension expense relating to these two plans are as follows:

	Three Months Ended
	March 31,		March 31,
	2012		2011
	(in thousands)
Service costs	$	328	$	318
Interest cost	368		325
Amortization of actuarial (gain) loss	12		54
Settlement and other related gains	—		(726		)
Net pension expense	$	708	$	(29	)

Settlement and other related gain of $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2011 related to restructuring activity in the Company’s Rousset, France operations initiated in the second quarter of 2010.

The Company’s net pension cost for 2012 is expected to be approximately $2.8 million. Cash funding for benefits paid was insignificant for the three months ended March 31, 2012. Cash funding for benefits to be paid for 2012 is expected to be approximately $0.3 million.