October 16, 2025 13:31 
In spite of ongoing uncertainty, investors in Central Europe are optimistic about the remaining months of the year, due to a more balanced sentiment regarding the economy, expectations of increased availability of debt finance and of stable market activity levels, according to the latest Deloitte Central Europe Private Equity (PE) Confidence Survey. The sentiment regarding the overall economic climate shows moderate optimism, with 58% of respondents expecting conditions to remain the same and 24% expecting them to improve, while 18% estimate a decline. As a consequence, the Confidence Survey Index climbed to 133 points, from 119 points in the winter of 2024, a recovery which can be explained by the fact that the uncertainty caused at the beginning of the year by the roll-out of the new US administration economic policies began to settle.
An impressive 41% of the private equity investors in the region expect availability of debt finance to increase (up 10 percentage points from 2024), and 53% expect it to remain the same for the following period. This is the highest level of optimism in the last decade and it indicates a favorable lending environment, as funding sources are increasingly available, from banks to alternative local and global lenders, the study explains.
As for the market activity, 61% of the participants to the study (up from 47% in 2024) expect it to remain constant and 28% expect an increase. This edition of the study also analyzed the effects of the current US administration’s policy on the PE firms’ activity, and the results indicate moderate impact. Most of the respondents (54%) see no change in relations with US investors and companies in the EU and the CE region, a third of them (32%) see a reduction, while 14% perceive even higher interest in the region from the US investors, both in terms of operations and capital.
When it comes to targets, investors in the region continue to prefer established businesses, with 55% of respondents expecting market leaders to attract the highest competition (up from 48% in winter 2024). Middle-sized companies are in second place, with 39% of respondents expecting them to be the most sought after, while start-ups are seen as the most competitive by only 5% of respondents, down from 9% in 2024.
“The first half of 2025 was characterized by a significant increase in the number of acquisitions of smaller companies of strategic importance (so-called bolt-on activity) and a series of strong divestments of large companies that boosted the activity levels in the Central Europe region. The growing size and potential of the Romanian private equity market is confirmed by the transactions we saw over the past two years in various sectors such as healthcare, energy, financial services, retail and real estate, which were significant both in terms of volume and of value, especially due to the two large exits of MidEuropa Partners - from Regina Maria and Profi Rom Food. We are honored to have been involved in many of these high-impact projects, either buy-side or sell-side, and we see significant opportunities for the following period,” said Radu Dumitrescu, Advisory Partner-in-Charge, Deloitte Romania.
Deloitte Central Europe Private Equity Confidence Survey has mirrored the private equity market evolution since 2003, twice per year.
