This article explores the evolution of private equity in emerging markets, focusing on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) from 2003 to 2023. It examines trends in fundraising, investing, and exits, highlighting the region’s resilience through global crises, including COVID-19 and geopolitical conflict. Our analysis of private equity activity in the CEE region serves as the foundation for our analysis of dry powder. Notably, we identify an intriguing anomaly: the presence of negative dry powder, a condition that contrasts with prevailing global trends and suggests structural differences between the CEE private equity ecosystem and other emerging markets.
Klonowski et al. (Fri,) studied this question.