David Shein – who sold his $750 million company, ComTech, to Dimension Data Australia in 2000 – has sold his two waterfront properties on Sydney Harbour as part of a transaction reportedly exceeding $70 million.
Fairfax Media reported last week that his family's two adjoining houses in the exclusive eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, owned by wife Colleen, were bundled with two other neighbouring properties in a blockbuster deal.
If the reported sale value is true, the transaction would set a new Australian record - beating Erica and James Packer's $70 million sale of their Vaucluse property to Chau Chak Wing last year.
CRN contacted Shein but he declined to comment, citing a confidentiality clause in the contract. The upcoming settlement will reveal the exact sale value.
According to property records, the Sheins bought 13 Coolong Road in May 2000 for $7.4 million. The family bought the adjacent 13a Coolong Road waterfront house for $14.05 million in November 2010.
Those two properties were combined with 15 and 15a Coolong Road for sale as a single 4270 square metre plot to a "Sydney businessman" last week, reported Fairfax. The buyer planned to demolish and build one massive waterfront "mega-mansion".
Shein is famous in the Australian IT channel as the founder and maiden managing director of Dimension Data Australia. Established in 1987 as Com Tech, he grew the reseller from just himself to 1,400 employees by the time Dimension Data acquired it for more than $1 billion in 2000.
He is now a Fairfax Media board member, as well as chairman of Montech Holdings - the publicly listed holding company for prominent Microsoft partner MOQdigital.