Hardware distributor, Dicker Data, is in the final stages of becoming a public company, with a ‘DDR’ symbol to be listed on the board in the middle of October.
“The company will be called Dicker Data Limited,” managing director and co-owner David Dicker, told ARN. “We’re converting our existing company into a public company. Originally we were going to do this complicated restructuring where we kept the real estate in Dicker Data, but we decided against it.”
The public will have 4 per cent of Dicker Data Ltd at the Initial Public Offering (IPO). Under a Compliance Float it requires at least 500 shareholders putting in $2000.
Operational nothing will change for the business, Dicker said. “We will have the same people; we will be doing the same things. It will probably make the company have a better value – certainly more liquid value, and we hope it will allow us to get more funding from the banks.”
“To be honest when we originally talked about doing this way back when, they were all saying, ‘Oh yeah, you’re a public company, we’re going to flood you with cash.’ Now when we’re actually going to be one, I’m not 100 per cent sure how much better that’s going to be.”
The move to publicly list was originally slated for June, but was then pushed back to a July or August time-frame. Part of the reason for the delay, he said, was mainly due to the initial idea to restructure.
“Originally we were going to strip the real estate out, keep it in this company, so we had to move the business out of this company into a new company, which we formed. Then we had to get a ruling from the ATO on how that structure was going to be, and whether it was going to be okay, and we’re still waiting for that ruling.
“Even though they are mandated to give you an answer by a certain date, they didn’t, and what are you going to do, arrest them. So we basically decided we wouldn’t restructure.”
Dicker said the process hasn’t caused him too many headaches. “We were already reporting at a very high level. In terms of the ATO, we were called a large corporate, which is the same reporting level as a public company anyway – it is just a different structure. Our books have been audited for the last 5-7 years, so the auditing side doesn’t even change. It is exactly the same. We are staying with the same accountants that we’ve been using for more than ten years.”
In addition to the public listing, the company is also set to move into its new premises in the Sydney suburb of Kurnell in two weeks.
The double storey facility, which cost $15 million to build, measures 5000sqm (including 1000sqm of office space). There is an additional 10,000sqm of warehouse space available.
