Société Générale on the brink

It's not common for me to speak about European companies, but given the issues in Eastern Europe and the recent rally, it's important to keep an eye everywhere and try to figure out whether or not I am right to think that we are in a bear market rally.

So here I find some pieces of information relative to new bond issues from big French companies and it reminds of my previous post: Many CAC40 companies are financially unhealthy. The current post can actually be seen as a sequel to this previous post.

So what do we see?

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 1.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 1.000.000,0 EUR émis par DEXIA CREDIT LOCAL DE FRANCE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 4.500.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 4.500.000,0 EUR émis par DEXIA CREDIT LOCAL DE FRANCE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 20.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 20.000.000,0 EUR émis par BANQUE PSA FINANCE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 23.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 23.000.000,0 EUR émis par BANQUE PSA FINANCE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 25.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 25.000.000,0 EUR émis par BNP PARIBAS.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 20.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 20.000.000,0 EUR émis par BNP PARIBAS.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 20.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 20.000.000,0 EUR émis par BNP PARIBAS.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 500.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 500.000.000,0 EUR émis par SOCIETE GENERALE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 600.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 600.000.000,0 EUR émis par SOCIETE GENERALE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 20.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 20.000.000,0 EUR émis par RENAULT CREDIT INTL S.A.BANQUE.

Admission sur Euronext Paris (XPAR) le 16/06/2009, de 35.000.000 certificats de dépôt, pour un montant total de 35.000.000,0 EUR émis par CREDIT INDUSTRIEL COMMERCIAL.

Yesterday, I also found this:
LAFARGE : émission obligaire de 750 millions d’euros (AOF, le 15/06/09 à 16:44)
So Lafarge has already raised 1.5 billion € in shares and borrowed about 2.1 billion € in debt. It's the forth time in two months that Lafarge borrowed huge sums of money! Lafarge is worth today less than 14 billion €. Does these numbers smell sound corporate governance?

So today, Société Générale borrowed 1.1 billion € while its current market cap is about 23 billion € and that it had already raised money by selling a 7% stake to the French government. So they can keep on telling that their exposure to Eastern Europe is not dangerous, that the 5 billion € loss due to Jérôme Kerviel was a singular event, that the 4 to 5 billion hidden loss in their books which lead to their CEO to step down was not an actual loss, but actions speak louder than words, and according to these actions, one this is for sure, SocGen IS IN DEEP TROUBLE (unless I have been completely mislead by this report of course).

Now the more general picture is that this mega large cap companies are raising as much money as they can, while the markets have rebounded. Is this a sign of "green sprouts"? Or are these companies trying to keep a cushion of cash for the upcoming Greater Depression?