Cannon Brookes’ $40bn SunCable project hit by Quinbrook exit

More woes for billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes as partner Quinbrook scales back involvement in the $40bn SunCable project and two directors exit the board.

Quinbrook chief executive Brian Restall and senior director James Allan (inset) have left the SunCable Development Services board.

Mike Cannon-Brookes’ $40bn SunCable project has suffered another setback with partner Quinbrook scaling back its involvement and removing two directors from the board.

SunCable said the renewable developer had stepped back from the mega project but remained a minority shareholder in the venture.

Quinbrook was hired in 2023 to support the tech mogul’s early-stage Australian-based development activities.

“Quinbrook has successfully completed its early-stage support role and have now exited day-to-day development activities, remaining engaged in the project as a shareholder,” SunCable chief executive Ryan Willemsen-Bell said.

Quinbrook chief executive Brian Restall and senior director James Allan have left the Sun Cable Development Services board.

SunCable generation site in the NT.

Their replacements have been plucked from the billionaire’s family office with Cannon-Brookes Collective chief financial officer Faris Cosic and Grok Ventures chief of staff Emma Wartski-Coonan appointed as directors.

Mr Cosic will also join the board of SunCable Holdings.

Mr Willemsen-Bell said the focus was now on “progressing commercial discussions to secure industrial customers in Australia and the region, staging the development to suit those customer markets, securing further approvals and agreements, and refining the technical and engineering design.”

The Australian has reported the SunCable development has so far failed to secure funding for its maiden $US100m ($154m) capital raising as doubts grow over the billionaire delivering one of the world’s largest renewable energy projects.

Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes

The project has been hit by a string of executive departures and redundancies over recent months, including managing director Cameron Garnsworthy and chief development officer Martin Hay. Both were appointed in January last year, with Mr Garnsworthy having two decades of experience in the development, construction, and operation of more than 30 solar, wind and battery projects in Australia and Europe.

SunCable has denied the fundraising was behind schedule, claiming “discussions are advanced with a couple of parties” to stump up at least part of the funding.

The project aims to supply 1.75GW of electricity to Singapore by an undersea cable. At 4200km, the cable to Singapore would be more than five times bigger than the longest submarine link yet proposed – the 767km Viking link between Britain and Denmark – testing engineering capabilities and exposing the project to sovereign risk as it flows near Indonesian territorial waters.