Australia’s Sun Cable receives A$65m loan to stay afloat
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AUSTRALIAN billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures will provide a loan of A$65 million (S$59.6 million) to keep the collapsed renewable-energy startup Sun Cable operational while administrators seek a buyer.
The funding will include a six-month interest-free period, Grok said in a statement on Friday (Jan 20).
Sun Cable’s A$30 billion project aimed to construct the world’s biggest solar farm and export the power generated to Singapore through 4,200 km of undersea cables. It entered voluntary administration last week, amid a falling out between Atlassian co-founder Cannon-Brookes and iron-ore magnate Andrew Forrest.
The billionaires, both investors in the company, were at odds over whether to proceed with exporting the project’s clean electricity to Singapore, or to use it domestically.
News of the fund injection came as administrator FTI Consulting told creditors on Friday that Sun Cable would continue its project development pipeline ahead of its sale. FTI said it expected to soon appoint bankers for a sale process, which it anticipated to take about three months.
A source said that while Forrest’s Squadron Energy had made an alternative funding proposal, this had yet to be taken up. The source asked not to be identified discussing private information. Squadron and FTI declined to comment on the matter.
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John Park, leader of corporate finance and restructuring at FTI, said: “We have looked to preserve the value of Sun Cable, and keep all options for the future of the project on the table.”
He added that FTI would “seek to crystallise the interest expressed in the future of Sun Cable into a firm offer for the benefit of creditors and other stakeholders via the sale process”. BLOOMBERG
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