Will there be tussle between Forrest and Cannon-Brookes for ultimate control of Sun Cable?

Sun Cable’s future will likely hinge on which style wins. Forrest wants to operate projects, Cannon-Brookes wants to invest in them.

It seems it is hard to get rival billionaires to agree on anything, even if it is saving the planet.

The startling move to put the giant $30bn Sun Cable project, one of the country’s largest renewable developments, into administration is all down to a clash of styles – and perhaps egos – between two of Australia’s richest men.

Simply put, Sun Cable is in administration because neither billionaire shareholder was prepared to keep putting money into the company on the other’s terms.

In one corner is Andrew Forrest, the voluble mining magnate pursuing a green hydrogen dream via Fortescue Metals, where he has recent reappointed himself executive chairman in an attempt to make that vision a reality.

In the other is technology guru Mike Cannon-Brookes, whose day job is running global software company Atlassian (with another billionaire, Scott Farquhar) and who is pursuing his renewable energy dream via more indirect ways.

Given their respective styles, and now with the benefit of hindsight, there was always likely to be a day of reckoning come at Sun Cable a little over three years since the duo emerged as shareholders in the project to export solar power generated in outback Australia to Singapore.

Especially as each held veto rights over the other’s proposed funding deals for Sun Cable before it was put in administration.

There was also their differing opinions on a green energy future. Forrest is a particular green hydrogen evangelist; Cannon-Brookes is not.

The question remains now whether there will be a tussle between Forrest and Cannon-Brookes for ultimate control of Sun Cable, which they both say they remain firm believers in.

Because it is clear only one will emerge as the winner. Or, if both walk away, then Sun Cable’s future is in real peril.

With a combined net worth of $50bn, Forrest and Cannon-Brookes are used to getting their own ways, wielding their fortunes in their own manner to achieve power.

Forrest made his $30bn fortune mining iron ore at Fortescue, but has set up subsidiary – Fortescue Future Industries – to pursue green hydrogen projects. His goal is not inconsiderable. He wants to make FFI as big as Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest energy firm. And his style is direct and forthright. He is hands on and doesn’t like being diluted in any of his investments.

Forrest’s move in May to become Fortescue’s executive chairman effectively gave him total control of Fortescue, both as its biggest shareholder with more than 30 per cent of its stock, and as its most senior executive.

Cannon-Brookes’ most high-profile foray in renewables has been as a green activist at AGL Energy, where he emerged as its biggest shareholder with an 11 per cent stake and managed to have four candidates he put forward for its board elected amid an effort to accelerate a transition to renewables.

Sun Cable’s future will likely hinge on which style wins. Forrest wants to operate projects, Cannon-Brookes wants to invest in them.

Both say they want to save the planet. But both want to also make money. Which can get in the way of many dreams.