DECEMBER DEAL TO ACQUIRE LOCAL PLAYER BLUSERENA EXPECTED TO PAVE THE WAY TO BUILD A PLATFORM IN ITALY AND DEVELOP THE PRESENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS .
by JEFF WEINSTEIN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
Bluserena ’ s Serenusa Village in Sicily , Italy
3,000 keys . The hotels , 11 in the 4-star category and two 5-stars , are spread across the main Italian tourist coastal destinations including Sardinia , Sicily , Apulia , Abruzzo , Piedmont and Calabria .
The transaction also includes the acquisition of the Bluserena operating platform , which will continue to be located in Pescara
( Abruzzo ), Italy . The transaction was the largest executed in the Italian hotel market in 2021 , consolidating the Azora European Hotel & Lodging , F . C . R . as a market leader in Italy .
Azora is planning to spend € 30 million ( US $ 34 million ) on the Bluserena properties as well as grow the company in Italy through new hotel acquisitions , leases and management contracts .
In total , Azora has raised capital in excess of € 5 billion ( US $ 5.7 billion ) since its inception in 2003 and currently manages an asset portfolio of € 4 billion with investments in Spain , Belgium , Portugal , Italy , Germany , the United Kingdom and Switzerland , among other countries . It has also entered the United States market .
As it becomes a force across Europe and after announcing the Bluserena deal , HOTELS reached out to Azora leadership to learn more about why it acquired the Italian resort operator . We talked to Javier Arus , partner and head of the hotels division at Azora , to get insights about the latest deal and more .
HOTELS : Where does potential lie in Italy ? What further attracted Azora to the market ? Javier Arus : Italy is the third largest touristic market in Europe , and on top of its high international demand it also has a very large and resilient domestic leisure market . From an ownership and operator perspective , the Italian market is one of the most highly fragmented markets in Europe – there are not many hotel operators and many resorts are in the hands of families . These factors represent a clear opportunity to build a platform and help develop the presence of institutional investors in such an attractive market .
Azora had already gained presence in Italy though the 529- room Grand Palladium Sicilia Resort & Spa in Sicily , which it acquired when it took majority ownership in Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts in 2019 . We realized that on top of the strong and resilient domestic market there were opportunities to build on Italy ’ s international demand , too . As it is very labor intensive to gain a relevant presence in the Italian tourism market , due to its fragmentation , being exposed to this market via the significant Bluserena deal gives us a privileged position from which to continue building out our activities in Italy .
H : Will Bluserena grow via strict management in addition to acquisitions made by Azora ? JA : Today , Bluserena manages five
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