Before the financial crisis, central and eastern Europe was all the rage with private equity firms. Investors ploughed money – a record $10.6 billion in 2008 – into a region that was growing fast and opening up to foreign investment after years of political and economic uncertainty.

Chris Mruck, managing partner and head of Advent International's CEE team, noted: "The 2000s, up to the global financial crisis, was the golden period for CEE, with GDPs in the region growing enormously fast. It looked very dynamic compared to western Europe."