The Private Equity Confidence Survey has been tracking the changing sentiments of the Central European investment community every six months since 2003. Deloitte Central Europe proudly presents the latest report which marks the 42nd edition of the programme.

For over 20 years, the Deloitte Central European (CE) Private Equity (PE) Confidence Survey Index has reflected the sentiment of on-the-ground deal-doers around conditions for transactions.

Even if 2023’s activity levels remain subdued, fundraises amidst a challenging backdrop as well as a number of lucrative exits have underlined the ability of the region’s experienced PE houses to invest and harvest across cycles. The latest Survey marks a third-consecutive semester of increasing confidence, only the third time our Index has recorded such sustained growth.

There is positive sentiment around the economic backdrop, with a near tripling of those expecting conditions to improve to 42%. Equally encouraging is a halving of those expecting the backdrop to worsen (to 20%, down from 40% in Summer 2023). 

In a further sign of confidence, half (49%) of respondents expect transacting to increase in 2024, double last semester’s proportion and up from a low of just 6% in Summer 2022. Furthermore, only 14% expect a decrease in activity, down from a third last semester.

Debt markets are more liquid now than in the last few years, with nearly a third (29%) expecting availability to improve. This is more than double our last Survey, while those expecting liquidity to decrease has reduced dramatically to just 22% in this Survey.

Vendors may have softened their pricing expectations in the last six months, with nearly two-fifths of respondents (38%) feeling pricing had come down in the second half of 2023, slightly more than felt that way in the first half of the year (34%).

"It is great to see confidence making a firm comeback after a protracted period of extraordinary difficulty. That the growth in optimism is more measured than in the other periods of the Survey’s sustained growth is a testament to CE’s experienced deal-doers, who can draw on previous cycles to apply more pragmatism to today’s backdrop,

Cautious confidence is reassuring and suggests that transactions this year will be done thoughtfully with flexible funding suited to maintaining much-needed agility in the region’s fast-growing companies."

- says Jan Brabec, Deloitte Partner and Private Equity Leader.