Note 9 - Pension Plans

6 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

9. Pension Plans

We maintain three defined benefit pension plans: one for United Kingdom employees, one for German employees and one for Philippine employees. We deposit funds for the United Kingdom and Philippine plans with financial institutions and make payments to former German employees directly. We accrue for the unfunded portion of obligations. As of September 30, 2015, the German defined benefit plan was completely unfunded and we accrue for its obligations. The United Kingdom and German plans have been curtailed. As such, the plans are closed to new entrants and no credit is provided for additional periods of service. We expect to contribute approximately $994,000 to the United Kingdom and Philippines plans in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. The measurement date for the projected benefit obligations and the plan assets is March 31.

The net periodic pension expense includes the following components (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended						Six Months Ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	(unaudited)						(unaudited)
Service cost	$	25		$	26		$	51		$	52
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation		371			467			739			940
Expected return on plan assets		(442	)		(494	)		(880	)		(991	)
Recognized actuarial loss		45			18			90			36
Net periodic pension expense	$	(1	)	$	17		$	-		$	37

Information on Plan Assets

We report and measure the plan assets of our defined benefit pension plans at fair value. The table below sets forth the fair value of our plan assets as of September 30, 2015 and March 31, 2015, using the same three-level hierarchy of fair-value inputs described in Note 4, “Fair Value” (in thousands):

	September 30, 2015										March 31, 2015
Description	Level 1		Level 2			Level 3		Total			Level 1		Level 2			Level 3		Total
	(unaudited)										(unaudited)
Cash and cash funds	$	1,157	$	-		$	-	$	1,157		$	2,588	$	-		$	-	$	2,588
Currency contracts		-		(125	)		-		(125	)		-		(30	)		-		(30	)
Equity		3,876		-			-		3,876			19,997		652			7		20,656
Fixed interest		1,101		13,055			1		14,157			861		5,887			1		6,749
Mutual funds		-		9,484			-		9,484			-		-			-		-
Mortgage-backed securities		-		34			-		34			-		16			-		16
Swaps and other		-		249			-		249			2		133			-		135
Total	$	6,134	$	22,697		$	1	$	28,832		$	23,448	$	6,658		$	8	$	30,114