UK – Aberdeen Property Investors has appointed Paul Aggett to oversee its Nordic, UK and continental European divisions - essentially taking the role of chairman Iain Reid.

Reid’s position at API is the subject of speculation in the UK press.

API itself has been the subject of a lot of press coverage over the last 10 months. Parent company Aberdeen Asset Management originally put the property subsidiary up for sale in order to boost finances, but despite in-depth discussions with potential buyer British Land, the sale was pulled last month.

According to Aberdeen, British Land had not offered enough, although other reports say API’s Nordic division was refusing the deal.

Reid is now reported by the UK press to have left the company or have been forced to leave, following the breakdown of the deal he worked on. Confirmation from both the parent and the subsidiary has not been forthcoming.

A spokesman for API said the situation was “not completely resolved”, adding that Reid was “unlikely to stay”. He said that Reid and Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, were “trying to reach an agreement on his future”.

Reid declined to comment on the situation.

But the API spokesman was able to confirm that Paul Aggett, who was also “involved in sales negotiations”, had been made chief operating officer. Aggett would be “overseeing the three areas of API” – namely API Nordic, API UK and API Continental Europe. This was the role that Reid has been carrying out as chairman of the holding company. Agget was previously head of business development at Aberdeen plc.

API manages around 8.6 billion euros in assets – about 25% of parent company Aberdeen Asset Management’s total assets.

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