Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has prevailed over mining tycoon Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest in a months-long bidding battle to acquire the collapsed Sun Cable mega-project in northern Australia from administrators.
Cannon-Brookes and Forrest - two of Australia's richest men and formerly the biggest investors in the unbuilt $35 billion Sun Cable project - had lobbed competing offers to take control of the collapsed entity in a closed-doors sale process conducted by administrators FTI Consulting, which concluded on Friday afternoon.
In a statement, FTI confirmed Sun Cable had entered into an asset sale agreement with Helietta Holdings, an entity linked to Cannon-Brookes' privately owned Grok Ventures, which would acquire all of Sun Cable's assets.
Cannon-Brookes described the deal as a "big step in the right direction" for Sun Cable.
"We've always believed in the possibilities Sun Cable presents in exporting our boundless sunshine, and what it could mean for Australia," the billionaire co-founder of software giant Atlassian said.
"It's time to stretch our country's ambition. We need to take big swings if we are going to be a renewable energy superpower. So swing we will."
Sun Cable - a company with ambitious plans to build a giant 20-gigawatt solar and battery farm in the Northern Territory that would link to Singapore via a 4200-kilometre underwater cable - was plunged into voluntary administration this year amid a disagreement between Cannon-Brookes and Forrest over the venture's future.
Squadron Energy, part of Forrest's private Tattarang Group, no longer supported building the cable to link a portion of the project's renewable energy to Singapore due to concerns about cost blowouts and doubts about its viability. Squadron Energy instead favoured a plan for all its clean energy output to be used domestically.
Grok has emphasised its ongoing support for Sun Cable's original plan, which included the power link to Asia.
More to come.