Aberdeen restructure sees senior property departures

The reconfiguration of London-listed asset management firm Aberdeen Asset Management’s multi-manager strategies into one alternatives division has led to the departures of senior executives from its property multi-manager business.

Aberdeen integrated its property multi-management business into a new alternatives division earlier this year after buying asset manager Scottish Widows Investment Partnership at the end of last year. The move saw the $3.58 billion property division extracted from its direct property investment business and included in a wider multi-manager offering for its investors with a combined $18.7 billion of assets under management.

The new alternatives division now positions real estate multi-management as one of four “specialist investment desk” alongside desks for indirect investment strategies for hedge funds and private equity and a direct investment desk for infrastructure investments.

As with Aberdeen’s others multi-manager divisions, the reorganisation has led to various senior property executives leaving, including global head of property multi-manager Jon Lekander. He has since enrolled in further education at the Kungliga Tekniska hogskolan Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Among the others to have departed are global head of investments Antonio Alvarez, global head of investment analysis Markus Steinby and head of global mandates Karin Koks.

Leadership of the property desk has subsequently been awarded to the platform’s Asia head Puay-Ju Kang who will also run continue to run its investment activities in the region. In Europe, where the platform this month announced the closing of €300 million of capital commitments for a property secondaries fund of funds, investing activities will continue to be led by Mark Wilkins. Similarly, Katherine Giordano retained her leadership of its American activities.

Kang will report directly to the alternatives divisional head, Andrew McCaffery, who was previously in charge of Aberdeen’s hedge fund multi-manager activities.