Key Takeaways
- • Svitlana Gubriy serves as Head of Indirect Real Assets at abrdn (formerly Aberdeen Standard Investments), overseeing a multi-manager global real estate securities platform managing 11 REIT strategies across distributed teams in Boston, London, Edinburgh, and Singapore.
- • Gubriy has held leadership responsibility for global listed property funds since joining Standard Life Investments in 2005, currently managing the Global REIT Focus Fund (SICAV) and directing real estate equities research and portfolio strategy across Asia Pacific and international markets.
- • The abrdn real estate team structure reflects geographic expansion, with Gubriy overseeing regional specialists including equity analysts based in Hong Kong reporting directly to her portfolio management function, demonstrating a hub-and-spoke organizational model for global REIT exposure.
- • Gubriy's investment philosophy emphasizes disciplined portfolio construction, publicly articulating that fund managers must answer two foundational questions before investor pitches: (1) What problem do I solve? and (2) How do I complement others?
- • The platform manages institutional and retail exposure to global listed real estate securities through multiple strategy vehicles, indicating broad distribution capability across both UCITS (SICAV) and non-UCITS fund structures.
Summary
Gubriy's tenure at Standard Life Investments—which merged with Aberdeen Standard to form abrdn—dates to 2005, providing her with over two decades of experience in global listed real estate management. She directs the Global REIT Focus Fund (SICAV) in her capacity as fund manager and serves as deputy fund manager for additional real estate securities vehicles. Her portfolio management remit extends across institutional and retail investor mandates, indicating breadth across the asset class spectrum.
The organizational structure under Gubriy's leadership reflects contemporary portfolio management practices in institutional real estate. Regional specialists, including real estate equities analysts based in Hong Kong, report to her, ensuring that global REIT exposure integrates both bottom-up research and top-down strategic positioning. This governance model aligns research function with portfolio decision-making, reducing information asymmetries in securities selection across regional markets.
Gubriy has publicly articulated investment philosophy principles relevant to institutional allocators. She identifies two critical questions fund managers must address: defining the specific problem they solve and clarifying how their offering complements existing portfolio holdings. This framework reflects mature thinking around differentiation and portfolio construction—considerations central to institutional investor due diligence in real assets allocation.
The abrdn platform's scale—managing multiple REIT strategies across global markets—positions Gubriy's team to serve institutional, family office, and public fund mandates requiring diversified global real estate equity exposure with professional research infrastructure and localized market expertise.
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