Atlassian Co-Founder Pledges to Financially Support World’s Biggest Solar Farm

When two college pals, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar decided to create Atlassian, they were armed with merely a credit card and their aspiration. Presently, 15 years later, the company has more than 3000 employees serving more than 1,50,000 customers.

This article would focus on the company’s move to support and invest in Sun Cable, the anticipated largest solar farm in the world, along with the other updates from the software player. We would also understand the company and its stock performance in the course of the article, but foremost, let us acquaint ourselves with the hot news:

Mike Cannon-Brookes to invest in the Sun Cable Project

Recently, Atlassian’s co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes affirmed to extend his financial assistance towards the 10GW Sun Cable project, which is likely to be the world’s biggest solar farm in the Northern Territory. The billionaire, along with his investment vehicle, Grok Ventures, has confirmed that he would invest (an undisclosed amount, yet, but expected shortly) in the project, along with the other Australian entrepreneurs.

The total project cost would range between $20 billion - 25 billion and is expected to have an amazing crew associated with it. The news makes absolute sense, as Mr Cannon-Brookes has been a vocal advocate for renewable energy in Australia, since a long time and believes that he could make the plan at Sun Cable work.

He accepts that there was a dire worldwide emergency to take care of the current climate. It should be noted that in a carbon-constrained world, the company is one of the few Aussie players to have signed up to reach a net zero emission eventually.

The Singapore and Australia Connection

The Sun Cable Project aims to facilitate availability of renewable energy for Australia and Singapore. It is a long-believed fact that Singapore majorly depends on imported Liquid Natural Gas for 95 per cent of its electricity, exposing it to the whims of global oil and gas pricing. This is when Australia’s strong relationship with Singapore comes into picture, and the Project would source its power from the Australian desert, while transmitting the same through a High Voltage Direct Current cable.

Moreover, the Australian economy status, along with its firm political and legal framework is likely to catalyse the Project.

Why Australia for Renewable Energy?

Before we understand the Project in detail, it would be interesting to acquaint ourselves with the features of Australia, which makes the above-discussed connection seem feasible.

Consider the below mentioned to conclude the same:

The Sun Cable Project

The ambitious nation-building project would build a solar farm on a (largest in the world) scale, along with a battery system which would match in Australia's dusty Northern Territory. Post this, a 3800-kilometre cable (underwater) would run to provide for the purpose of keeping the lights on in Singapore region. Solar panels would spread across a vast span of almost 15,000 hectares next to the Tennant Creek.

Experts suggest that the Project would utilise Tesla batteries for storage, which would work at 50 degrees centigrade. A cable would connect the Darwin and Alice Springs, leading the power towards Singapore, and provide a fifth of the entire city's supply.

The project would take approximately 8 years to conclude and would eventually generate over 20 gigawatts and is expected to contribute $800 million to the Northern Territory's economy on an annual basis.

Besides this, the project is expected to provide inexpensive large-scale energy to produce hydrogen fuel, which can be further exported to the other markets like Japan.

Sun Cable project Highlights (Source: Sun Cable)

Now that we have a grasp on the latest buzz with Atlassian, let us understand the company and what it has been up to:

Atlassian Corporation Plc

Headquartered in Sydney and founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, Atlassian is a renowned software and Cloud-first company which develops numerous products for project managers, content management players and software developers. It is a provider of productivity software and team collaboration. The company is best known for Jira, which is an issue tracking application and Atlassian’s flagship product, and Confluence, which is a wiki product.

Other company products include Hipchat, Bamboo, Trello, Fisheye, Crowd and Bitbucket, to name a few.

Atlassian’s Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2019 Results

On 25 July 2019, the company announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending 30 June 2019. During the year, the company surpassed the 150,000 customers mark, and consequently crossed the $1 billion revenue score (an annual basis), a historic and first-time event. The financial highlights of the fourth quarter of 2019 are discussed below (on an IFRS basis):

• Total revenue was $334.6 million, up by 36 per cent on pcp;
• Operating loss was $32.4 million ($2.5 million in Q418);
• Net loss was $237.5 million for the period ($21.9 million in Q418)
• Cash and cash equivalents, along with short-term investments amounted to $1.7 billion.

The Fiscal Year 2019 Financial Highlights are as under (on an IFRS basis):

• Total revenue was $1,210.1 million, up by 37 per cent on pcp;
• Operating loss was $63.4 million ($46.0 million in FY18);
• Net loss was $637.6 million ($113.4 million in FY18).

In 2020, the company aims to continue investing in its Cloud business and cater to the Fortune 500,000, while catalysing its long-term growth. Atlassian expects to generate a total revenue in the range of $349 million to $353 million in the first quarter of FY20, and $1,540 million to $1,556 million in the entire year.

Recent Business Highlights

The company was successful in adding 8,689 net new customers in the fourth quarter of 2019. In June 2019, the company presented at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and previewed its flagship product, Jira for Mac, which would be beneficial for software developers and tightly integrate with macOS. Besides this, in July 2019, the company expanded its presence with a new office in Bengaluru, India, with plans to have it as a world-class R&D and customer support centre and double its employee base from the initial 200.

Share Performance

The Atlassian stock trades at NASDAQ under the ticker TEAM. After the close of the trading session on 25 September 2019, (NASDAQ:TEAM) stock quoted $128.20, down by 1.07 per cent, relative to its previous trade. The market capitalisation of the company is $31.14 billion.

Market experts and renewable energy enthusiasts are looking forward to witnessing the unfolding of Atlassian’s participation and impact at the Sun Cable Project, amid its other growth tales. We are committed to provide readers/ investors with related updates and urge you to watch out this space for more.

Renewables and Climate Update from Across the World

Let us conclude by recognising a couple of hot picks, in the renewable and climate space:

• Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ASX:ANZ) has joined the bandwagon and is (reportedly) the latest Aussie signatory to be associated with The Climate Group’s RE100 initiative, aiming for a global transition to a zero-carbon space. The company, working on its sustainability strategy and adhering to the growing expectations of its customers demanding action on climate, has pledged to source 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, with the focus region being the New Zealand and Australia.
• A few Amazon employees had joined the September 20 Global Climate Strike led by a young activist, calling upon the company to commit to zero emissions by 2030. This could be possible if the company pledged to cancel the contracts which accelerate gas and oil extraction and cease related funding.

To understand the Australian Renewable Energy Space, we encourage you to read HERE.

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