Should we be worried about the impact that the virus and oil price is having on the markets, the economy and transactions in the mergers and acquisitions arena?  Well in the short term , large deals that were already chalked in as it were appear to be going ahead - see Tesco's and AON - and for me if the rationale was right for a disposal or acquisition last month I dont see why for well managed businesses that a transaction should not go ahead. No doubt there are some short term (hopefully) stresses to be put upon businesses and that will be a real test for management (NB back at the time of the 3 day working week UK productivity did not suffer) and as such at worst there might be a delay in getting a deal away but on the flip side the UK (see the budget tomorrow 11 March) and across the world, action is being taken to stimulate economies through fiscal and central bank action which should reduce the cost of money and increase the amount of money in the consumers (and business) pockets.  Supply chains at this stage appear to be holding up well (apart from toilet roll!) and output from China appears to be recovering - the main unknown is when will the virus peak in the rest of the world and how long will that last.

So its an acid test around how sustainable your business is - if you are able to cope well then it makes you more attractive to a purchaser. Its an opportunity to examine how you are impacted and what could be done to mitigate things going forward eg - 

• how robust were your suppliers? should you consider widening your supply chain both in terms of numbers of suppliers and also in terms of location
• how did the employee react to any change in working practices? could more remote or efficient working be embedded into work practices going forward - is there always a need to travel to see a client
• if you outperformed your competitors eg by ensuring continuty of supply can you capitalise upon that through negotiating better supply terms

If you didnt perform that well perhaps you should be looking at making a key acquisition to boost your business - supply chain, customer base, geographic markets and management team can all be improved through a good strategic purchase.