S$10 million out of S$12 million pooled from oBike Singapore’s users was moved to the bike-sharing company’s Hong Kong office before it ceased its operations in June, according to FTI Consulting, oBike’s liquidators.
The business management consultancy firm said yesterday that the S$10 million was purportedly used to offset a loan of S$ 11million from its Hong Kong operations.
FTI Consulting added that oBike has not returned their users’ deposits, which was supposedly meant for the bicycle supply.
Consequently, letters of demand will be issued against oBike founder Shi Yi and the company’s Hong Kong office, according to the liquidators.
FTI Consulting’s senior managing director Joshua Taylor said: “Some of the transactions are inappropriate given the financial position of the company, and we will be looking at those a lot further.”
“We can look at unwinding that transaction to say ‘no, you do owe the money to oBike Singapore and you need to pay the money to oBike Singapore’, that’s what we have communicated,” he added.
Subsequently, Mr Taylor declared that, from their findings, “the deposit holders’ money came into the Singapore bank account and thereafter was transferred to oBike Hong Kong.”
Separately, oBike Hong Kong had allegedly extended a loan to the company’s Singapore office, according to Mr Taylor.
He suggested that “What we’ve seen in the accounts and what they have done is netted off the two amounts to say nothing’s owed”, adding that the transaction is “inappropriate” in nature.
Mr Taylor also suggested that the $1.7 million balance was used to refund users’ deposits, as well as oBike’s operating costs.
Consequently, FTI Consulting is seeking to unwind this transaction, and a repayment of the S$10 million sum to oBike Singapore.
Mr Joshua James Taylor and Mr Yit Chee Wah were appointed as liquidators for oBike after being voted by a majority of creditors in a meeting with at Shaw Tower on Wednesday.
The meeting included 30 creditors, comprising oBike users demanding the return of their deposits and also companies to which oBike are indebted.
On 25 June, oBike had abruptly announced its departure from the Singapore market before announcing its liquidation.
Approximately a couple of hundred riders went into a frenzy over the news, and had promptly sought their mandatory deposits that they had placed with the firm.