Dietrich Rogge, founder and CEO of Rockstone, a German-based real estate developer and investment company, did not want an Anglo-Saxon name for the project it embarked on in Ethiopia. A rare European player in a real estate market dominated by local players, it wanted to signal the height it wants to reach with a green building. He also wanted it to fit into the context of the city, both spatially and in terms of name recognition. So the company gave its Ethiopian project, a sprawling apartment complex meant to cater to the higher-income segment, the Amharic name Kefita. With a plot in the Signal area, Rogge insists that Kefita is just the beginning and that he sees a real estate market that is only getting started - "I'm optimistic," he says - in his one-on-one with Fortune's Op-Ed Editor, Christian Tesfaye.
Fortune: It is rare for a European company to be interested in the real estate industry of Ethiopia. Less so for a company such as yours that targets an upper market segment. Are there not markets that Rockstone should target and exhaust - say in Asia or Latin America - before embarking in one of the least wealthy countries in the world?
...