By Eyasu Zekarias
Purpose Black Ethiopia makes big money moves to take BGI Ethiopia’s long-standing headquarters at the heart of downtown Mexico Square.
BGI is set to bid farewell to what it has called a home ground for decades with the new paradigm shift that has transpired in the company owing to the purchase of the former Meta Abo Brewery in Sebeta town, a move that was made last April. Furthermore, the move comes at the back of the city’s improved master plan, which prohibits factories in the city center. This has thus led to the auction of the expansive 30,000sqm hot property that includes an eight-storey building, a factory unit warehouse, and a spacious ample parking area.
In hot pursuit of the property, is none other than Purpose Black Ethiopia, which has its aspirations set for the future of the property.
According to Fisseha Eshetu (PHD), Chief Executive Officer of Purpose Black Ethiopia, “There are 3rd party processes that need to be completed through BGI. We have already paid 1 billion birr for the first process. We hope the rest will be completed within 9 months.”
To get the financial backing for the mega project, Purpose Black has resorted to offering shares to the public, with each share being worth 1.5 million birr, and as the company revealed it has garnered about 1.5 billion birr in share sales in the week that the sale took effect. This has resulted the company to capitalize on the demand by upping the price per share for the second round to 3.5 million ETB which will be offered to a select elite few.
According to Purpose Black the ambitious construction project will have a timeline period of 4 years. The company’s head cited huge aspirations for the property including construction of a corn plant, and mixed-use building. Furthermore, Fisseha disclosed that the 5,000sqm property will also accommodate five additional structures, each standing up to 60 storeys tall.
The Purpose Black Ethiopia initiative hit the ground only two years ago across the country with a multi-billion birr task that consists of the construction and release of a mega agro-processing complex, an e-commerce marketplace, five hypermarkets, ten huge supermarkets, and a network of over a thousand retail and distribution stores throughout Ethiopia.
