Fortescue in billionaire bust-up with US tycoon Paul Tudor Jones

afr.com:

A plan for US billionaire Paul Tudor Jones to invest in Fortescue’s clean energy projects has turned sour, with the Wall Street icon’s private office accusing the Australian company of breaching contracts and behaving in an “unethical, immoral and unscrupulous” way.

Ranked by Forbes as the world’s 299th richest person with a fortune worth more than $US8 billion ($12.2 billion), Mr Tudor Jones has pursued Fortescue for $US6.25 million of costs incurred while investigating a potential energy partnership.

Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones made his reputation as a macro-trading maverick. Bloomberg

A lawsuit filed in Connecticut reveals that Mr Tudor Jones’ flagship private company, Kid Shelleen, worked with Fortescue on a plan to jointly acquire North American fossil fuel assets last year with a view to converting them to clean hydrogen production.

But the relationship soured in late 2022, when Fortescue lodged a solo bid for assets it had jointly investigated with Kid Shelleen, then refused to pay the due diligence costs accrued by Kid Shelleen and its advisers.

The revelations come as Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest prepares to front investors in Perth on Tuesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, where proxy advisers have called for a revolt against the miner on executive pay.

The US District Court in New Haven was told that Fortescue’s clean energy division – formerly known as Fortescue Future Industries or FFI – started negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Kid Shelleen in early 2022.

The MOU was the first step toward a formal agreement to create a joint venture that would pursue energy acquisitions based on Kid Shelleen’s deep experience of the US energy sector and Fortescue’s financial