Andrew Forrest’s Tattarang is seeking to buy trade debt owned by Sun Cable
Andrew Forrest’s Tattarang is trying to buy up debts owed by the collapsed renewable energy play as his war with Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes continues.
Andrew Forrest’s Tattarang is trying to buy up minor debs in collapsed renewable energy company Sun Cable, as the company’s administrators seek a buyer for the company.
Administrator FTI on Friday filed the minutes of the January 20 first creditors’ meeting of the company, confirming that Sun Cable was placed in administration with relatively minimal debts.
While the full list of the company’s creditors is still yet to be released, the only creditor owed more than $1m is sub sea surveying company Guardian Geomatics, which claims to be owed $10.2m.
At the meeting, FTI’s John Park confirmed Guardian as the company’s biggest single creditor. Of the 22 trade creditors in attendance at the meeting, two were owed just under $900,000, and only one other claimed a debt of more than $500,000.
But sources said senior staff at Tattarang have been contacting small creditors in recent days seeking to buy out their debts, and that the company was offering full value for the debt in exchange for its assignment to Tattarang.
Tattarang declined to comment on Friday.
While Tattarang’s motivation is unclear, neither of Sun Cable’s warring major shareholders – entities controlled by Dr Forrest and Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brooke – are owed money.
FTI recently launched a sales process for Sun Cable, which controls a massive renewable project in the Northern Territory that plans to build up to 20GW of solar facility and up to 42GWh battery storage, along with an 900MW, 800km transmission line to Darwin to sell renewable power to Asia through a 4200km sub-sea cable to Singapore.
Although Mr Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Investments has extended a $65m interest-free loan to the company to keep its staff employed while a buyer is sought, only creditors owed money before FTI was called in will get to vote on any buyout or restructuring proposal flowing from the Moelis-led sales process.
Dr Forrest has made it clear he plans to ditch Sun Cable’s plan to sell power via a sub-sea cable if he wins control of the company, preferring it to produce green hydrogen or ammonia.
It was that fundamental disagreement with Mr Cannon-Brookes that sparked the collapse of Sun Cable, after the pair could not come to an agreement about future funding for the company.
With Tattarang-controlled Squadron Energy considering a bid for Sun Cable, that view may struggle to win support from creditors – such as Guardian Geomatics – which might hope to win future work on the project if it is bought out by Grok or other parties sympathetic to its original ambitions.
But, while the creditor list lodged with corporate regulators is far from complete, it is still not clear whether Tattarang could buy enough debts to sway a vote over competing proposals.
Any vote at a future creditors’ meeting would need the support of a majority by value and by number attending.
Guardian Geomatics is owed $10.2m, according to its claim, and another 21 creditors attending the meeting claim to be owed a total of only about $4m.
This week FTI won orders in the Supreme Court of NSW extending the notice period for the second creditors’ meeting until June 30.