The Irish businessman fired from his job leading the redeveloped Battersea Power Station says he was ousted in retaliation for blowing the whistle on financial misreporting that gave a false picture to investors and the public.
Donagh O’Sullivan flagged in November 2024 that internal accounts valued plots of undeveloped land at the site, which once produced a fifth of London’s electricity and is now a swanky collection of apartments, shops, restaurants and offices, at hundreds of millions of pounds more than independent estimates.
Days after he showed King Charles around the site in December 2024, the Cork-born chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development Company was suspended. In May 2025 he was fired. He has now taken a claim to an employment tribunal.
In its defence to the claim, the company denied any accounting irregularities and said it had dismissed O’Sullivan over poor performance, a lack of strategic leadership and allegations of misconduct.
O’Sullivan had previously spent more than 20 years at London property developer Galliard Homes.
By the time he joined Battersea in 2024, the site included about 2,000 luxury apartments, more than 140 shops and restaurants and Apple’s UK offices, with several further phases anticipated. Battersea said O’Sullivan was hired to formulate a plan to secure a “good financial return” for its investors — which include two publicly listed Malaysian companies and a Malaysian state pension fund.
O’Sullivan said that when he started trying to develop a strategy, he was stymied by the extent to which the company had put expenses on the balance sheet rather than taking them as an upfront hit to profits. According to O’Sullivan, this approach resulted in the unbuilt parts of the site becoming overvalued on the balance sheet of BPS Holding, the group of entities responsible for developing the broader Battersea site.
External assessments of those plots in 2023 and 2024 by real estate advisers Jones Lang LaSalle and Knight Frank indicated a much lower value, the claim said.
O’Sullivan said he flagged his concerns to the directors of Battersea — including executives from its publicly listed Malaysian shareholders SP Setia and Sime Darby Property.
Battersea said the accounting treatment used was appropriate, with the third-party valuations produced on a different basis than those used in BPS Holding’s audited accounts. PwC, which audits BPS Holding, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. BPS Holding, which is not a party to the litigation, has also denied any accounting irregularities. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026