BNPL Openpay goes under as creditors chase debts

In the quarterly update, Openpay chief executive Dion Appel said the company’s credit performance remained within its target threshold and historical range.

“While credit performance has softened, it has done so when compared to the pandemic era, where government stimulus was high and Openpay prudently did not relax its underwriting rules,” he said.

An announcement to the ASX on Monday stated that McGrathNicol partners Barry Kogan, Jonathan Henry and Rob Smith, appointed by OP Fiduciary and Amal Security Services, now controlled the company’s assets, operations and trading activities.

“The receivers and managers will work closely with Openpay’s employees, merchants and customers to urgently determine the appropriate strategy for the business,” the statement read.

Openpay, which first listed in 2019, is not the only BNPL to feel the crunch amid rising interest rates.

Its suspension comes after New Zealand BNPL Laybuy announced last week that it would delist from the ASX.

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Several BNPL players recorded phenomenal share price growth between 2020 and early 2021, spearheaded by Australian success story Afterpay, which was acquired by US company Square in August 2021.

But over the past year, a number of them have unravelled, including Zip Co, which has suffered a share price plunge, shedding 78 per cent from $3 a share in February 2022, to trade at 67 cents as of Monday.

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