Cannon-Brookes v Forrest: Duelling billionaires could both miss out on Sun Cable solar project

Both Cannon-Brookes and Forrest have been manoeuvring into positions to improve their chances. Grok has extended a $65 million line of credit to the company to tide it over, while Forrest has been busy buying out creditors – a move that may give him better leverage in the event the decision goes to a vote of creditors.

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However, the ultimate decision will come down to price.

The administrators are keeping their cards close to their chest and have not handed any clues to who else has joined in the bidding process – only that there are ‘others’ alongside Forrest and Cannon-Brookes.

However, well-sourced speculation says the interest has come from both offshore and domestic players that are institutional investors. This could mean contestants could be large infrastructure funds on a superannuation consortium.

So, the billionaires could have a fight on their hands with bidders boasting deep pockets.

The centrepiece of the Cannon-Brookes/Forrest dispute is what to do with the energy generated by the vast solar farm. The original idea was to sell it to Singapore – a plan that involved building the undersea cable.

But Forrest wasn’t having any of that, either because the economics of this piece of infrastructure didn’t add up, or he wanted to keep the power on shore to supply a green hydrogen project of his own. Probably both.

He also wasn’t on board with Sun Cable’s management and wanted it replaced.

For his part, Cannon-Brookes wanted to continue with Sun Cable’s original plans but wanted to do so with ‘constructive’ partners. He has reportedly already found a co-investor to partner with in the bidding process but has not revealed its identity.

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But there are still numerous question marks over the project – not the least of which is whether Singapore will sign up to buy Sun Cable’s renewable energy.

While media reports last month said Singapore’s plans to import 4GW of renewable energy by 2035 were on track, they also reported Sun Cable was no longer part of those discussions.

Sun Cable may rejoin the fray but critics of the Sun Cable project believe Singapore may choose to find closer suppliers from elsewhere in Asia.

Meanwhile, the winning bid for Sun Cable will be revealed in May.