going concern

plural going concerns

1. accountingA successfully operating enterprise.

   At Acromas, the balance sheet is more than £1bn in the red [...] and a pre-tax loss of £300m was recorded in the year to January 2009. But Acromas is still regarded as a viable going concern.

   2010 February 22, The Guardian

   1 more example

   If the bank does not act swiftly to push the CDS price back down, the regulator seizes the assets, wipes out shareholders and sacks the management. The bank is recapitalised as a going concern and later sold.

   2009 May 14, “Dilute or die”, in The Economist

2. broadlyA person who is active, thriving, energetic, and highly successful in their endeavors.

   ‘H’m! he’s dead orright...I never seen anyone look deader ’n that...though at any time, at th’ best o’ times, he was never what you’d call a goin’ concern.’

   1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 73