The goodwill goodwill has even increased

Heavily indebted balances, a large gap between accounting values and stock prices, but, despite this relative confidence of entrepreneurs in the future. This is reflected in accounts of the CAC 40 companies 2008 photography, performed by Ricol, Lasteyrie firm.

This third edition of the "financial profile" of the Parisian flagship index, vetting the publications of the last year, said the weight of the debt. Net debt, associate, almost all of the CAC 40 (1) grew up to 255 billion euros, against 211 billion in 2007. With the parallel collapse of more than 40 of the market capitalization, debt weighs, on average, more than half (52) of the capitalization, compared to 17 in 2007. Reported in the capital, the conclusion is similar: the debt climbed to 54, i.e. an increase of 9 points from the previous year. "It's a lot and this partly explains the many increases in capital and refinancing operations. High debt of enterprises is related to acquisitions and the use of leverage, said Sonia Bonnet-Bernard, Associate Manager of the firm of expertise and financial advice. "Debt is made in two-thirds, in Europe, through bank loans." "Firms are now more and more use of the bond, banks lending less", says Pierre Astolfi, partner at Ricol, Lasteyrie. Consequence of this high debt: financial expenses increased by 2 billion euros in 2008, to 20 billion euros, or 5 of operating income (before personnel expenses).

The cabinet also lent to a breakdown of this figure: in a context of decline of net profits ( 41 in aggregate, at 57 billion for the whole of the CAC 40), "employees have preserved their status in 2008, the difference of State" and shareholders. The personnel expenses represent the vast majority (58) of the result of exploitation by mass (excluding Suez Environment), clearly before the 10 dividend ( 15 per cent, to EUR 35 billion) and 9 tax on companies ( 16.5, to 31 billion). In fact, dividends were much less remote than profits ("Les Echos" from April 27).

Asset preservation

Other education for this financial profile is the relative stability of the value of the assets in the balance sheet of the groups studied. "Even if they were of value tests based generally on a refresh of their predictive flow future more frequent than in the past, companies conducted little impairment." The "goodwill" goodwill has even increased. This shows that managers hope to resume fairly rapidly with a higher level of activity and profitability offset markets, remaining them worried. "If managers are not impairments, this year, the difference between book value and market value should remain important, is the specialist.

This gap is much increased: "price to book" ratio rose by an average of 2.5, in 2007 to 1.4 in 2008. Almost half of the CAC 40 companies have market value at end 2008 below their own funds, whereas they were only 3 the previous year. No bank or insurance worth more than its capital, while the relaxation of accounting standards allowed them to maintain in part the latter. "An atypical, reflecting the pessimism of investors and their fears that a deterioration in the results."