The SunCable fire sale is complete. Now comes the hard part for Cannon-Brookes.
Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures today gained full control of the world-first solar mega project and 4300km undersea transmission link from Darwin to Singapore.
Mike Cannon Brookes’ Grok Ventures will hold talks with Australian and offshore infrastructure investors to lock in equity funding for its emblematic $30 billion SunCable project to supply renewable energy from the Northern Territory to Singapore via an undersea cable.
The investment firm today finalised its purchase of a 100% interest in the project, which it snapped up in May after the scheme fell into voluntary administration following a high-profile fallout with partner Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Squadron Energy.
Grok must now obtain an import licence from Singapore’s Electricity Markets Authority (EMA) for the Singaporean aspect of the project to be realised. Assuming the licence and planning and environmental approvals are granted, the firm will then look to bring in debt and equity investors, Cannon-Brookes told reporters on a call today.
“The restructure into two different work streams will allow us to have different funding partners for each side of the project. We are aware of a large number of investment groups with different interests — they range from those with a higher risk appetite willing to take development risk in the project to those with a lower risk appetite wanting to own the project when it is operational, such as pension, sovereign, and large infrastructure funds,” he said.
