No progress in sight for former oBike users to retrieve their deposits; around S$455,000 in claims filed

SINGAPORE — Nine months after its previous creditors' meeting, there is still no end in sight for oBike users to retrieve their deposits, because the bike-sharing firm's liquidators and new owners are still locked in a stalemate.

In an annual general meeting held on Tuesday (Oct 29) by the oBike’s liquidator FTI Consulting, its senior managing director Joshua Taylor said that FTI Consulting has provided “about 15 boxes of records” to Mr Oscar Moises Chaves at the end of February this year. 

Mr Chaves, a Costa Rican investor, became the majority shareholder of oBike as far back as October last year and he said in January this year that he is determined to fulfil the firm’s obligations to its creditors. 

Mr Taylor revealed at the meeting that oBike has net funds totalling about S$551,000. This is after clawing back some money from the scrapping of bikes and refunds from third-party vendors, and deducting costs related to the liquidation such as advertising, the retrieval of bikes, and so on. 

There are S$8.9 million owed to about 220,500 former oBike users, and some of them have filed claims amounting to about S$455,400 as of Monday noon. Back in January, close to S$439,000 in claims were made.

About S$780,900 are still owed to third-party vendors, town councils and regulatory bodies. 

Mr Taylor said of the data that the liquidator has to process: “It’s quite voluminous. What we’ve provided is effectively claims that we have received from deposit holders, from creditors. We did redact people's personal information.”

However, Mr Taylor said that the new owner had some queries regarding the documentation but the company has yet to receive the questions. 

The impasse has continued since as far back as January when Mr Chaves said that he did not receive the full breakdown of the amounts owed to parties here.

A week later, during the second creditors’ meeting, Mr Taylor said that he has provided Mr Chaves with “information regarding claims against (oBike)”. 

However, it was not what Mr Chaves was expecting, for he said that he was again provided with the summary of monies owed without names or documents to back up the claims. He had asked for the invoices. 

Mr Chaves was not present at the second creditor’s meeting or the annual general meeting on Tuesday, which lasted a mere 10 minutes with just six people in attendance. 

TODAY has tried to reach out to Mr Chaves’ brother, Mr Samuel Elias Chaves, who is leading OSS Inversiones — the investment firm that bought over oBike — alongside his brother.  

In June last year, oBike announced its shock exit from the Singapore market, saying that it had difficulties meeting the Land Transport Authority’s rules tackling indiscriminate parking under a new licensing regime.