Mystery new GrabOne creditor scuppers liquidator coup, could push debt past $25m
Friday, 21 November 2025
A mystery new creditor has thwarted an effort to replace the liquidators in the GrabOne collapse and potentially pushed the failed coupon company’s total debt to $25 million.
The new player emerged when the votes were tallied on two resolutions at a creditors meeting on Thursday.
GrabOne, also known as Global Marketplace New Zealand Ltd, entered liquidation last month owing $16.6m. By far its biggest debt was $9.3m to its parent company ‒ Australian firm Global Marketplace Pty Ltd. Next was $3.9m to unsecured creditors. One of those, the Waffle Haus, which has three outlets in Christchurch and Akaroa, wanted a new firm, Waterstone Insolvency, to take on the case.
Waffle Haus director Jamie Stewart sought proxy votes from other creditors ahead of the meeting and lodged them all against the resolution to confirm the existing liquidator, Auckland firm Calibre Partners.
It was in vain. Thirty creditors, representing $9.1m of GrabOne’s debt, voted to retain Calibre, led by one unidentified creditor owed more than $8m. Nine creditors, accounting for $617,000, opposed (a majority in number and value of creditors for the resolution to pass).
“It seemed to take everyone by surprise,” Stewart said after the meeting. “No-one was expecting it and no-one knows who it was.”
Liquidator Daniel Stoneman said Calibre could not disclose specifics of the creditor’s claim, including their identity, without consent, which he was seeking. “I need to follow due process,” he said. He did not address repeated queries about whether the claim should be added to GrabOne’s $16.6m of liabilities.
Whoever the mystery creditor is, their debt dwarfs all the existing ones. Only the $9.3m owed to Global Marketplace Pty Ltd ‒ which initiated the liquidation ‒ is comparable, but as a related party creditor it could not vote at the meeting. Likewise, Californian venture debt fund Partners For Growth, which helped finance the Australia firm’s $17.5m acquisition of GrabOne in 2021, is a secured creditor and outside the voting pool.
Waterstone Insolvency attended Thursday’s meeting and addressed creditors before the vote.
“We were surprised at the $8m,” director Damien Grant said. “When you consider that previously [GrabOne’s debt was] $16m, the fact that there was another $8m creditor out there is a significant financial deterioration in the business and I think it’s relevant to the other creditors to know who that was.
“They did not exist on Thursday afternoon [November 13, when the creditors meeting was called]. It did exist at 10 o’clock on Tuesday [November 18, the deadline for postal votes]. They pulled a rabbit out of their accounts receivable list. It’s a hell of a big rabbit.”
A second resolution, to form a creditors committee, did not pass. An updated liquidator’s report is due next year.