Atlassian’s Farquhar gets nod from storage developer Genex with improved offer

Atlassian co-found Scott Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson are poised to take control of listed renewables and storage developer Genex Power, after making an improved offer, access to its targets books and the indicative approval of the target’s board.

Skip Enterprises, a private investment firm owned by Farquhar and Jackson, last month teamed up with some former Australian Macquarie bankers now at US-based Stonepeak to lob a conditional 23c a share offer for Genex.

That bid, though significantly above its recent trading price, was rejected by Genex, which then promptly gave an upbeat outlook for its suite of solar, wind and storage projects, and agreed to buy the massive Bulli Creek solar and storage site in Queensland.

Skip and Stonepeak have now returned with an improved offer of 25c a share through a scheme of arrangement, and and although it remains conditional and subject to due diligence, Genex has indicated it is inclined to accept it in the absence of a higher offer.

The takeover of Genex will mean that both Atlassian co-founds – Mike Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar – are now heavily invested in the green energy transition.

Cannon-Brookes has been a vocal critic of the past Coalition government and a strong advocate for the green transition, and is now playing a key advocacy role in support of electrification and for the introduction of fuel efficiency standards.

He is also an 11.3 per cent shareholder in AGL, forcing that company to abandon its controversial demerger plans and to accelerate its switch out of coal, and is also a key supporter of the Sun Cable project, which is planning the world’s biggest solar and storage project in the Northern Territory.

Genex owns two operating solar farms, 50MW facilities at Kidston in Queensland and Jemalong in NSW, and is building its first big battery at Bouldercombe, and the country’s first pumped hydro facility in decades at the now abandoned Kidston gold mine.

It is also looking to add wind and a solar expansion at Kidston, and is planning already a 400MW/1600MWh battery, followed by a significant solar development, at the Bulli Creek site in the south of the state.

Its privatisation will remove the last active wind, solar and storage developer from the boards of the Australian Stock Exchange, following the takeovers of Tilt Renewables, Windlab and Infigen Energy, and the withdrawal from Australian projects of New Energy Solar.