A Qatar investment bank has joined Pramerica Real Estate Investors in a German retail property joint venture.

QInvest, whose shareholders include Qatar Islamic Bank, is investing in 16 retail properties across Germany.

QInvest’s real estate unit invests opportunistically in junior financing and equity for assets in the US, Western Europe and the UK.

The portfolio is sector agnostic and includes core, value add and greenfield developments.

Craig Cowie, head of real estate at QInvest, said the portfolio would provide “higher-yielding exposure, with value-add upside from defensive assets in one of the more robust EU economies”. 

He added: “We intend to offer equity to our shareholders and clients as part of our ongoing initiative to provide value-add returns to all stakeholders.”

The 140,000sqm portfolio is multi-let to tenants including grocery and home improvement retailers.

Pramerica said it would act as portfolio and asset manager for the properties.

Sebastiano Ferrante, head of Germany for Pramerica, said the acquisition provided long-term income returns through “strong underlying leases in proven, diversified, regional markets”. 

“We are pleased,” he added, “to partner with QInvest to capitalise on the attractive fundamentals of the German economy and the overall retail investment market.”

Pramerica said it now managed more than €700m in German retail property assets on behalf of investors.