The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has entered into two deals with Qualitas, which include up to A$1.7bn (€1.2bn) worth of commercial real estate credit investment mandates and equity investment in the ASX-listed non-bank lender.

ADIA is investing an initial A$700m in Qualitas Diversified Credit Investments (QDCI), a new vehicle created exclusively for the sovereign wealth fund with Qualitas co-investing 5% or A$35m in QDCI.

In addition, Qualitas has granted options to ADIA under which the investor may acquire up to 32.6m new ordinary shares in Qualitas, representing almost 10% of issued equity.

Andrew Schwarz, group managing director and co-founder of Qualitas, told ΒιΆΉΣ³»­ Real Assets that the options were priced at A$2.50 each – the same as the company’s initial public offering share price – and would be worth A$82m in total.

β€œBut in order to access the options, ADIA has to give Qualitas another A$700m mandate to pick up the first 7% of our shares, and thereafter, it will get an additional 1% for every A$100m additional mandate up to A$1bn.”

Asked why ADIA wanted to be a shareholder in Qualitas, Schwarz said the investor could see β€œa lot of value uplift as the business grows”.

β€œADIA is awarding more mandates to us and would like to share in the value of a growing business. By investing in the company, they are creating an alignment with the management company.”

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