Bahrain-based Shamil Bank has joined hands with Sharjah Islamic Bank and Swiss-based Faisal Private Bank to launch a 150 million euros ($231 million) Sharia-compliant Central and Eastern European Real Estate Fund.

It is open to more than 50 potential investors and was launched at a presentation at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain, Hotel and Spa.

The fund, which takes diversified exposure on developmental and income generating real estate assets in Central and Eastern Europe, has a term of five years.

The presentation was the first leg of a GCC road show, which will then move to Oman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Faisal Private Bank is the investment adviser of the fund, Sharjah Islamic Bank the lead sponsor, and Shamil Bank the sub-adviser and co-sponsor.

'We are very pleased with the response of the Bahrain market to this fund, which is aimed at an informed and sophisticated investor base with very particular demands and interests,' said Faisal Private Bank head of investment banking Giovanni Perin.

'We have also been contacted by investors elsewhere in the region and expect a similar level of interest when we visit Oman and the UAE.'

He said the fund would take advantages of opportunities it had identified in the real estate market in these fast growing European economies.

'Sharjah Islamic Bank, following its own due diligence study, opted to invest in this fund, which presents investors with a very interesting long-term opportunity to enter a fast-growing sector, in a part of the world which is experiencing rapid economic growth,' said Sharjah Islamic Bank head of investment Saeed Al Amiri.

'We are confident that it will attract further interest from institutional investors from across the region.'

Central and Eastern European countries have experienced dramatic economic developments, with inward investment flows to various sectors of the economy having clearly demonstrable effects on their real estate sector.

This fund is designed to benefit from this growth. The core asset markets of the Fund are Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. Other target markets will include the Czech Republic, Croatia and Ukraine among others.-TradeArabia News Service