David Dicker splurges on jets, fast cars and US stocks after $42m share sale

The Dicker Data founder showed rare honesty in admitting what the proceeds from a recent share sale were going towards.

David Dicker of Dicker Data: ‘I traded the US stockmarket from 1997 to 2013, so I want to get back to that.’

David Dicker is nothing but completely honest when it comes to admitting how he will be using the $42m proceeds from a recent sale of a slice of his Dicker Data shares.

Some of the money, Dicker told the market last week, would be spent on buying a second-hand Bombardier Global XRS corporate jet.

Typically, these long-range planes can cost between $US10m-$US17m ($13.5m-$23m) according to online searches, depending on the age of the jet. Dicker usually splits his time between Australia, Dubai and New Zealand (he also has property in Italy), though spent much of last year in lockdown across the Tasman.

Dicker also said he was putting more money into the final capital spend on his Rodin Cars pursuit, which is building Formula One-style track cars on New Zealand’s South Island that he plans to sell commercially. He also wants to buy US stocks, Dicker tells The Australian.

“I traded the US stockmarket from 1997 to 2013, so I want to get back to that.”

Dicker says the likely composition of his portfolio will be a few tech stocks and exchange-traded funds such as the SPDR S&P 500 trust designed to track the S&P 500 stockmarket index.

The fund is the largest ETF in the world and is up 22 per cent since January 1.

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David Dicker

• Age: 67
• Lives: Abu Dhabi, Sydney
• Estimated wealth: $932m
• Source: Technology
• Secrets of success: Clinching deals with big global hardware and software brands to sell their products in Australia and New Zealand.

Source: The List – Australia’s Richest 250

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Dicker also has his eye on the Invesco Powershares QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF that tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100 Index. QQQ is up 23 per cent since the start of the year.

That admission last week, though, of what Dicker is intending to do with his funds was a clarification after an earlier revelation of the share sale caused a quick drop in Dicker Data’s share price, putting a dampener on the mid-cap market darling’s record net profit of $32m for the six months to June 30.

“This sale seems to have provoked a loss of confidence in [Dicker Data] which is entirely unwarranted,” he told the ASX last week while recommitting his ­future to the company. “It seems that people have read things into this sale that are just not there.”

Dicker made the clarifying statement after watching his company’s share slide as much as 20 per cent, though it has since ­recovered some of its losses.

Dicker Data investors are still up about 28 per cent since January 1 and 81 per cent in 12 months. At its peak of $16.60 in late August, Dicker himself reached billionaire status for the first time.

A member of The List – Australia’s Richest 250, Dicker owns 58 million shares in his eponymous company for a stake worth about $800m.

He is the CEO and chairman of what has been an overnight success story a good 40 years in the making. The one-time fridge mechanic and roofing installer founded his firm 1978. It would go on to become a computer software distribution company selling hardware and software in Australia and New Zealand on behalf of the biggest global IT brands. Dicker Data floated on the ASX in 2011 and has more than quadrupled in value in the past two years.

While Dicker Data said when announcing its recent results that “IT hardware, software and internet services will continue to be critical for today’s remote and digital workforce,” Dicker says it doesn’t necessarily mean the firm is a “Covid-friendly stock”.

“We put up good numbers and that is the most important thing, you are basically going to live or die on your results,” he says. “Thankfully, they were good.”

Dicker is no personal fan of lockdowns though. While he says Dicker Data has coped well as a company, many individuals have had their lives disrupted.

“It’s obvious that the strategies pursued by both the Australian and New Zealand governments were flawed. And I don’t think that comes from the benefit of hindsight,” he says.

“I think both governments thought if they just eliminated the virus locally the job was done. That was never going to be viable long term. Analysed rationally the only real solution was the vaccine.

“But the frightening part is just how quickly Australia descended into basically a police state. That has set a dangerous precedent. The impotence of the federal government, because of the states’ power, is also a troubling issue.”