(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures will provide a A$65 million ($45 million) loan to keep collapsed renewable energy startup Sun Cable operational while administrators seek a buyer.
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The funding will include a six month interest free period, Grok said in a statement Friday.
Sun Cable entered voluntary administration last week amid a falling out between Atlassian Corp. co-founder Cannon-Brookes and iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest. The billionaire investors are at odds over the viability of the proposal to export solar power from Australia to Singapore.
News of the injection of finance comes as administrator FTI Consulting Inc. told creditors at a meeting Friday that the company will continue its project development pipeline ahead of its sale.
FTI said it expects to appoint bankers to run a sale process shortly, which it anticipates taking about three months.
“We have looked to preserve the value of Sun Cable and keep all options for the future of the project on the table,” said leader of corporate finance and restructuring for FTI John Park in a statement. “We will seek to crystalize 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.”
The A$30 billion project aims to construct the world’s biggest solar farm and export the electrons to Singapore via 4,200 kilometres of undersea cable.
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