Azora, a leading international alternative investment manager with offices in Madrid, Luxembourg, London and Miami, today announced the opening of its new office in Italy as part of its pan-European expansion strategy and its long-term commitment to the Italian market.
The new office, located in Milan, will strengthen Azora's presence in Italy, where the firm has been active since 2019. The company also plans to invest an additional €1.5 billion across several strategic real estate and infrastructure sectors, including hospitality, student housing and biomethane, as well as residential, logistics and data centres.
Azora will focus on addressing structural supply-demand imbalances in the Italian market, with particular emphasis on asset classes that require intensive operational management and where it can deliver outstanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.
The Milan office opens with a team of 12 professionals, led by Simone Palmieri as Head of Investments. With more than 20 years of experience in the Italian market, Palmieri will play a key role in further strengthening Azora's presence in Italy, which began in 2019 with its investment in Bluserena.
"Italy is a strategic market for Azora, and the opening of our Milan office, with an initial team of 12 professionals, is a natural step in our pan-European growth strategy. This new office brings us closer to local opportunities, partners and assets while combining an on-the-ground presence with the investment discipline, sector expertise and operational capabilities that define Azora's business model," said Javier Rodríguez-Heredia, Managing Partner at Azora.
"It is a great opportunity for me to represent Azora in Italy. With €16.9 billion in assets under management and a 20-year track record of developing value-add investment strategies based on major global trends, Azora brings a unique combination of scale and operational expertise to the Italian market. We are proud of the confidence our investors have placed in Italy and look forward to continuing to deploy capital where it can generate both value and positive impact," said Simone Palmieri, Head of Investments at Azora Italy.
Azora's presence in Italy
Azora entered the Italian hospitality market in 2019 with the acquisition of the Grand Palladium Sicilia, a resort with more than 450 rooms located near Palermo, Sicily.
The firm significantly expanded its presence in 2021 through the acquisition of Bluserena, Italy's second-largest resort operator, in a landmark transaction for Azora's European expansion. The acquisition included a portfolio of 13 hotels with approximately 4,200 rooms across some of Italy's leading tourist destinations, including Sardinia, Sicily, Puglia, Abruzzo, Piedmont and Calabria.
Since 2021, Bluserena has significantly enhanced its operations, strengthened its brand positioning and improved customer satisfaction. More recently, the company was awarded the Great Place to Work certification and was ranked 15th among Italy's Best Workplaces 2026 in the large companies category.
Azora has also developed Draycott, a platform dedicated to investing in and operating biomethane plants. With seven projects currently underway, Draycott acquires existing biogas facilities for conversion into biomethane production plants while also developing greenfield projects for the construction of new facilities.
Most recently, Draycott expanded its footprint in Italy through the acquisition and conversion of facilities in Capralba (Cremona), Romano di Lombardia (Bergamo) and Moscazzano (Cremona), alongside the development of two greenfield biomethane projects in Trapani, Sicily, which process agricultural and livestock waste.
This initiative forms part of Azora's broader commitment to developing renewable energy infrastructure and supporting the energy transition across Southern Europe.
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The new office, located in Milan, will strengthen Azora's presence in ...
