Billionaires once united in visionary project now feuding over claims of ‘inexperienced management’
A dispute between two billionaires once united in a visionary project to send power from Australia to Singapore through the world’s longest subsea cable has escalated with one blaming cost blow-outs on “inexperienced management.”
Fortescue Metals billionaire Andrew
Fortescue Metals billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest siad the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that the capital costs of Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink Project (AAPL) “just kept rising by 10%, 50%, 100%.”
“That isn’t sustainable. That’s what I would expect with inexperienced management and a board of directors who have never done large projects,” he said.
Sun Cable brought in independent experts last week to evaluate the company’s assets and deal with creditors, raising questions about the future of the 35 billion Australian dollar ($24 billion) project, which had been billed as creating the “world’s first intercontinental renewable power system.”
Sun Cable would have connected the world’s largest solar farm with the biggest battery and longest undersea high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable, delivering up to 15% of Singapore’s electricity, starting from 2028, as the island attempts to reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050.
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