Cowie: Higher yielding exposure.

QInvest and the US-based Pramerica Real Estate Investors have acquired a portfolio of 16 retail properties located across Germany through a newly formed joint venture.
Pramerica is the real estate investment management and advisory business of Prudential Financial and operates as Prudential Real Estate Investors in the Americas, Korea and Japan.
The acquisition includes 16 multi-tenant retail assets anchored by major grocery and home improvement retail outlets, comprising more than 140,000 square metres across Germany. Key tenants include the largest German retailers.
Pramerica will act as the portfolio and asset manager for the properties. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“The acquisition provides investors with access to long-term income returns through strong underlying leases with major German retailers in proven, diversified, regional markets,” said Sebastiano Ferrante, head of Germany for Pramerica.
“The transaction provides us with higher yielding exposure with value added upside secured by defensive assets in one of the more robust EU economies, said Craig Cowie, head of real estate at QInvest. “We intend offering equity to our shareholders and clients as part of our ongoing initiative to offer value add returns to all stakeholders,” he said.
With this acquisition, Pramerica continues to execute on its strategy to capitalise on strong performance in the basic needs sector in Europe, including grocery and home improvement-anchored schemes. It now manages more than €700mn of German retail assets on behalf of its investors.
QInvest’s real estate unit invests opportunistically in both junior financing and equity for assets in the US, Western Europe and the UK. The areas of focus are sector agnostic and include core, value add and Greenfield developments.
The move to acquire 16 retail properties located across Germany comes close on the heels of QInvest partnering with Pramerica to launch a global liquid realty fund that will invest in high yielding Shariah compliant real estate investment trusts and other sector-related securities.