AZORA ACCELERATES ITS GROWTH IN ITALY WITH A NEW MILAN OFFICE AND A FURTHER €1.5 BILLION INVESTMENT

AZORA ACCELERATES ITS GROWTH IN ITALY WITH A NEW MILAN OFFICE AND A FURTHER €1.5 BILLION INVESTMENT

• The international investment management firm, with offices in Madrid, Luxembourg, London and Miami, is opening a new office in Milan to strengthen its presence in Italy, a strategic market for Azora
• The company, which has been active in Italy since 2019 with a primary focus on the hospitality sector, plans to invest an additional €1.5 billion in the Italian real estate and infrastructure market, particularly in student housing and value-add opportunities across sectors of strategic relevance for Italy and green infra (biomethane)
• Azora has already hired 12 professionals for the opening, with Simone Palmieri as Investment Director

Madrid, 16 July 2026 – Azora, a leading international alternative investment management platform with offices in Madrid, Luxembourg, London and Miami, announces the opening of its Italian office as part of its pan-European expansion and to reinforce its commitment to the Italian market, With this new branch, which will be located in Milan, Azora plans to strengthen its presence in Italy, where it has been active since 2019 and plans to invest an additional €1.5 billion across different segments of the real estate and infrastructure market with strategic relevance for Italy, particularly in Hospitality, Student Housing and Biomethane, and also across Residential, Logistics, and Data Centers, focusing on solving structural market gaps, with a particular focus on operationally intensive asset classes and delivering outstanding ESG performance.

The new branch starts already with 12 professionals, with Simone Palmieri as Investment Director. Simone has more than 20 years of experience in the Italian market, and he will help Azora to continue building Azora’s presence in Italy that started back in 2019 with Bluserena.

As Javier Rodríguez-Heredia, Managing Partner of Azora, points out: “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. It brings us closer to local opportunities, partners and assets, combining on-the-ground presence with the investment discipline, sector specialisation and operational capabilities that define Azora’s model.”

As Simone Palmieri, Investment Director of Azora Italy, comments: “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 strategies based on global megatrends, Azora brings to the Italian market a unique combination of scale and operational expertise. We are proud of the trust our investors place in Italy, and we look forward to deploying their capital where it can create value and impact”.

Azora’s Presence in Italy

Azora entered the Italian Hospitality market back in 2019 with the acquisition of the Grand Palladium Sicily, a resort with more than 450 rooms close to Palermo (Sicily) and continued with its hospitality strategy with the acquisition of Bluserena in 2021, the country’s second-largest resort operator, marking a milestone in its European expansion. This transaction included a portfolio of 13 hotels, totalling c.4,200 rooms across Italy’s main touristic destinations, including Sardinia, Sicily, Apulia, Abruzzo, Piedmont and Calabria. Since 2021, Bluserena has been significantly improving its operations, brand and guest satisfaction and has been recently awarded with “Great Place to Work” certification and have been included in the “Best Workplaces Italy 2026” ranking (15th among Italian large companies).

In addition, Azora has developed a Biomethane platform called Draycott, dedicated to the investment and operation of biomethane plants. Draycott, with 7 projects already, acquires biogas plants for their conversion into biomethane and biomethane greenfield projects for construction. Recently, Draycott has expanded its operations in the country through the acquisition and conversion of a plant in Capralba (Cremona), a plant in Romano di Lombardía (Bergamo), a plant in Moscazzano (Cremona), and two greenfield projects in Trapani (Sicily), which process agricultural and livestock waste. This initiative is part of Azora’s commitment to renewable energy infrastructure and the energy transition in Southern Europe.