Aberdeen Property Investors expands indirect team

Aberdeen Property Investors Indirect Investment Management, the indirect property arm of Stockholm based Aberdeen Property Investors, has made a raft of senior appointments to meet a growing “appetite for indirect products”.

In a statement Aberdeen said it had grown its indirect team, under the leadership of head Jon Lekander, to 28 professionals following four appointments in Europe and two in Asia.

The growth of the team comes after a period of recent departures including those of Anders Astrom, who led a team responsible for €3 billion in assets; Tomas Otterud, who deputised for Astrom; and Bo Ljunglof, a director responsible for its Asian activities. All three have since joined Credit Suisse.

In Europe, Aberdeen has appointed Antonio Alvarez and Fredrik Eliasson as investment director and deputy fund manager for AIPP Active respectively, to work out of its Stockholm office. Alvarez, a former analyst at ABN AMRO Asset Management, will focus on Stockholm based funds and mandates, and Eliasson will work on Aberdeen’s opened-ended private and public invested property fund of funds.

Aberdeen has also appointed Stina Akerland as legal counsel. Akerland was previously a compliance officer at Swedish asset management firm East Capital among other roles.

In Zurich, Aberdeen has appointed Aqil Khan from Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management where he was head of real estate investments.

In Asia, the firm has appointed Glyn Nelson as head of research and investment strategy for Asia Pacific. He previously worked at Jones Lang LaSalle as head of real estate intelligence service Asia.

Aberdeen has also hired Kian Sin Toh as deputy fund manager for its Asian funds from CIMB-Mapletree where he was a vice president responsible for investments in Malaysia.

Lekander said: “While markets are challenging, recent investor contact has suggested that there is appetite for indirect products.”