Mikkel Stern-Peltz: As the CEE private equity market continues to mature, how will proprietary deal flow be affected?

Jacek Siwicki: Since the dealflow in CEE is still largely relationship-driven and entrepreneurs need to trust their PE partners even in the buyout transactions (at the very least with respect to the ability to efficiently negotiate and execute the deal), there are still a lot of proprietary or quasi-proprietary transactions. In case of Enterprise Investors about 2/3 of our deals completed since 2010 belong to such category.

MSP: In what ways does the lack of developed public stock exchanges affect exits?

JS: Poland has a major advantage over the remaining CEE countries, because it has a well-functioning stock market. 33 EI's exits (30% of all exits since 1990) were done through the stock exchange, including two IPO's and partial exits from our portfolio companies just this year

MSP: How does the shadow of the Soviet Union impact the view of the CEE economies today?

JS: The shadow of the Soviet Union is probably more visible from outside of the CEE, because life and business goes on as usual over here - eight of eleven CEE economies grow faster than the eurozone average rate. Our meetings with LPs indicate that there are substantially less such concerns (in many cases not at all) than in the period immediately following the Soviet invasion in Ukraine.

We hope you enjoyed our interview. If you would like to hear more from Jacek he will be speaking at the CEE M&A and Private Equity Forum on 27th & 28th September in Warsaw. Click here to find out more and how to book your place

Mikkel Stern-Peltz Senior reporter (Nordic & CEE) Unquote

Mikkel Stern-Peltz is the news editor of unquote". He has covered the Nordic region since joining unquote" in 2014, following stints with the the Daily Telegraph, the Indpendent and London Evening Standard.

Born in Denmark, Mikkel holds an MA in financial journalism from City University London and a BA in journalism from London College of Communication, having previously studied international business & politics at Copenhagen Business School.