Openpay's BNPL platform went into receivership with cash flow $38M in the red

Buy-now-pay-later company Openpay entered receivership and shut its platform after being voluntarily suspended from the Australian Securities Exchange, with restructuring firm McGrathNicol appointed as creditors chased the payments company. Shoppers could no longer make new purchases, though outstanding balances remained payable under existing agreements.

The numbers signalled grave underlying issues: net cash from operating activities was negative $18.2 million in the December quarter and $38 million in the red over two quarters, leaving just $17 million of cash and $41 million in unused financing. Arrears (1.7 per cent) and net bad debts (2.2 per cent) both rose year on year. Shares traded at 20 cents when halted, valuing Openpay at $45.4 million — a minnow beside Zip's $512.8 million and Afterpay's $14.8 billion. Non-executive director Yaniv Meydan resigned the same Friday.

CEO Dion Appel insisted credit performance remained within target thresholds, saying it had 'softened' only against the pandemic era, when government stimulus was high 'and Openpay prudently did not relax its underwriting rules'. Openpay first listed in 2019; its collapse came amid a sector-wide squeeze — Laybuy had announced an ASX delisting the week before, and Zip had shed 78 per cent of its share price in a year.

The business model required continuous external funding to cover operating outflows; when rates rose and equity windows shut, the model had no self-sustaining state.

Receivers were appointed by secured creditors (OP Fiduciary and Amal Security Services), showing the funding stack had already turned hostile before the public collapse.

Scale never came: at $45.4 million market cap against Afterpay's $14.8 billion, Openpay lacked the loan book and merchant base to survive a funding winter.

BNPL is a balance-sheet business: when funding markets tighten, a lender whose operating cash flow is negative by design has weeks, not quarters, unless a bigger balance sheet stands behind it.

McGrathNicol partners Barry Kogan, Jonathan Henry and Rob Smith took control of assets, operations and trading, promising to work with employees, merchants and customers to determine the business's strategy; the platform stayed closed to new purchases.