After around 130 workers were suddenly made redundant just before last Christmas from the Malta-based Genesis Global gaming company, similar scenes were being played out across the world less than six weeks later at its much larger sister company.

The Malta employees had not even received their salaries for December, only termination letters by email to the effect that the company was being declared insolvent because of “serious financial difficulty”.

Genesis Global is owned by the Melbourne, Australia-based Meydan Group, which is led by Yaniv Meydan. The group has a variety of financial and commercial interests. Foremost among these is the Australian Securities Exchange-listed Openpay, one of Australia’s four biggest ‘buy-now pay-later’ financing companies.

Openpay last month laid off 80 of its 140 employees and put that company into receivership, just days after announcing record quarterly results of A$10.1 million – with total transaction value, active plans and active customers all reportedly increasing.

Openpay’s shares were suspended on the ASX and official receivers have now taken control – as in the case of genesis Global in Malta – of the company’s assets, operations and trading activities. They are now selling off the company’s assets, including its technology platform.

Openpay reportedly lost out in a major way when it tried to break into the American and UK markets, from which it later retreated. The company said at the time that it hoped to be profitable by June 2023, the end of its current financial year, and repeated the goal as recently as November.

In reality, the writing had been on the wall for Openpay, as well as for its sister remote gaming company Malta-based Global Genesis.

Openpay had been struggling for some time, with Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents showing it had not managed to turn a profit since its debut on the Australian stock market in 2019.

Openpay then revealed that it was having problems getting hold of A$41 million of financing, prompting the recent market pause. That left the company with a balance of just A$17 million, which breached its loan agreements and prompted two of its secured creditors – OP Fiduciary and Amal Security Services – to initiate the receivership proceedings.

Openpay had previously negotiated an extension to a A$10 million working capital facility with AH Meydan, and to its A$30 million corporate debt facility from OP Fiduciary Pty Ltd.

Neither Genesis Global nor Openpay – both now in receivership in Malta and Australia respectively – appears on the Meydan Group’s website where they once were.