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Chitchat Sinkies kena conned by Chink oBike.... O'no!
- Thread starter Scrooball (clone)
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only FARK-TARDS will trust a Chink company................lucky i can't ride a bike............
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Only $438,000 worth of claims filed out of $8.9m oBike owes in deposits, says liquidator
Bicycle operator oBike ended its Singapore operations unexpectedly in June 2018, after about 18 months of operating here, leaving users wondering if they would get a refund of their deposits.
PHOTO: The Straits Times
TOH TING WEI
THE STRAITS TIMES
Jan 24, 2019
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SINGAPORE - The majority of oBike users have not yet filed claims to retrieve their deposits, the firm's liquidators revealed on Wednesday (Jan 23).
But even for those who have filed claims, there is no timeline yet as to when they can get their money back, as liquidator FTI Consulting continues debt settlement talks with oBike's new majority shareholder.
The bicycle operator ended its Singapore operations unexpectedly last June, after about 18 months of operating here.
ADVERTISING
Its sudden exit had left users wondering whether they would get a refund of the deposit of up to $49 which they had to make in order to use the bikes.
READ ALSO
oBike to meet creditors on Jan 23 at Shaw Tower
As of Tuesday noon, deposit holders have lodged only $438,878.43 worth of claims, a small percentage of the $8.91 million that the firm registered in its records.
"Quite a lot of deposit holders are yet to file their claims with the liquidators," said FTI's senior managing director Joshua Taylor.
According to oBike's records, it has more than 220,000 deposit holders in Singapore.
The liquidators did not announce a breakdown of the number of people who have already filed for refunds at the meeting with oBike's creditors at Shaw Tower on Wednesday.
About 18 people, made up of both oBike users with unrefunded deposits and companies which are owed money, attended the 42-minute session.
In contrast to the fraction of oBike users who are looking to retrieve their deposit, a much larger proportion of other creditors have already filed claims against the company.
As of Tuesday noon, trade creditors, vendors, regulatory agencies and town councils have filed about $768,700 worth of claims against oBike, a higher number than about $497,700 of outstanding claims stated in the firm's records.
Mr Taylor also revealed that FTI had recovered about $541,000 from oBike through selling its bicycles and recovering funds held by third-party service providers.
Creditors are unlikely to receive a payout from this sum, he said in response to a question from an attendee.
"That is an option, but if you look at it, there's cost and expenses associated with liquidation... so if we did that I don't think there will be a great return at all to creditors," said Mr Taylor.
A lifeline for creditors, however, could come in the form of oBike's new owners, Costa Rican investment group OSS Inversiones.
FTI said it is working with OSS to agree on the proposed terms for the latter to settle outstanding claims against oBike.
Mr Taylor said: "We will continue to liaise with the investor on an agreement, and hopefully at some point in the near future, we will make a public announcement with the investor regarding whether an agreement has been reached."
He added that FTI had already provided additional information on claims against oBike to OSS, as requested by the group.
But a representative from OSS, Mr Samuel Chaves, told The Straits Times later on Wednesday that it had yet to receive such information.
Mr Gabriel Teo, country manager of logistics company TheLorry.com, said that despite the uncertainty over whether his firm can still receive the money owed to it, the meeting was more positive than the previous one in August.
TheLorry.com has filed a claim of $80,715.50 against oBike for services that it provided.
"Things have moved forward... we are cautiously optimistic," he said.
For former oBike users with unrefunded deposits, they can still file their claims against oBike at www.obikedepositholders.com/
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction
Bicycle operator oBike ended its Singapore operations unexpectedly in June 2018, after about 18 months of operating here, leaving users wondering if they would get a refund of their deposits.
PHOTO: The Straits Times
TOH TING WEI
THE STRAITS TIMES
Jan 24, 2019
FacebookTwitterGoogle+Email
SINGAPORE - The majority of oBike users have not yet filed claims to retrieve their deposits, the firm's liquidators revealed on Wednesday (Jan 23).
But even for those who have filed claims, there is no timeline yet as to when they can get their money back, as liquidator FTI Consulting continues debt settlement talks with oBike's new majority shareholder.
The bicycle operator ended its Singapore operations unexpectedly last June, after about 18 months of operating here.
ADVERTISING
Its sudden exit had left users wondering whether they would get a refund of the deposit of up to $49 which they had to make in order to use the bikes.
READ ALSO
oBike to meet creditors on Jan 23 at Shaw Tower
As of Tuesday noon, deposit holders have lodged only $438,878.43 worth of claims, a small percentage of the $8.91 million that the firm registered in its records.
"Quite a lot of deposit holders are yet to file their claims with the liquidators," said FTI's senior managing director Joshua Taylor.
According to oBike's records, it has more than 220,000 deposit holders in Singapore.
The liquidators did not announce a breakdown of the number of people who have already filed for refunds at the meeting with oBike's creditors at Shaw Tower on Wednesday.
About 18 people, made up of both oBike users with unrefunded deposits and companies which are owed money, attended the 42-minute session.
In contrast to the fraction of oBike users who are looking to retrieve their deposit, a much larger proportion of other creditors have already filed claims against the company.
As of Tuesday noon, trade creditors, vendors, regulatory agencies and town councils have filed about $768,700 worth of claims against oBike, a higher number than about $497,700 of outstanding claims stated in the firm's records.
Mr Taylor also revealed that FTI had recovered about $541,000 from oBike through selling its bicycles and recovering funds held by third-party service providers.
Creditors are unlikely to receive a payout from this sum, he said in response to a question from an attendee.
"That is an option, but if you look at it, there's cost and expenses associated with liquidation... so if we did that I don't think there will be a great return at all to creditors," said Mr Taylor.
A lifeline for creditors, however, could come in the form of oBike's new owners, Costa Rican investment group OSS Inversiones.
FTI said it is working with OSS to agree on the proposed terms for the latter to settle outstanding claims against oBike.
Mr Taylor said: "We will continue to liaise with the investor on an agreement, and hopefully at some point in the near future, we will make a public announcement with the investor regarding whether an agreement has been reached."
He added that FTI had already provided additional information on claims against oBike to OSS, as requested by the group.
But a representative from OSS, Mr Samuel Chaves, told The Straits Times later on Wednesday that it had yet to receive such information.
Mr Gabriel Teo, country manager of logistics company TheLorry.com, said that despite the uncertainty over whether his firm can still receive the money owed to it, the meeting was more positive than the previous one in August.
TheLorry.com has filed a claim of $80,715.50 against oBike for services that it provided.
"Things have moved forward... we are cautiously optimistic," he said.
For former oBike users with unrefunded deposits, they can still file their claims against oBike at www.obikedepositholders.com/
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction
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- Jun 27, 2018
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- Points
- 113
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Ofo has 'practically ceased' operations, sacked employees say, no official notice made to LTA
Singapore
Ofo has 'practically ceased' operations, sacked employees say, no official notice made to LTA
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Ofo bicycles file
File photo of ofo bicycles. (Photo: AFP/Eric Piermont)
By Amir Yusof
02 Feb 2019 06:29AM
(Updated: 02 Feb 2019 06:30AM)
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SINGAPORE: Former employees from bike-sharing company Ofo, who had their contracts terminated this week, said that the firm’s operations have “practically ceased” in Singapore as there were no personnel left.
The ex-employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Ofo terminated around 10 members of staff from the operations division on Thursday (Jan 31), and there were no officials left to move and maintain its fleet of bicycles on the streets.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
The contracts of hundreds of Ofo Singapore employees were also terminated in November, Channel NewsAsia had earlier reported.
A senior member of Ofo’s operations team, said that the team was instructed to stop recovering bicycles parked indiscriminately on the final three days of their employment this week.
“Moving forward, any requests from the government to move the bicycles will not be attended to. There are no more Ofo officials in Singapore. They are all in China. The company has practically ceased its operations in Singapore,” he said.
The employees who were sacked received a call from Ofo’s acting general manager Jack Zhou last Monday. Mr Zhou, who is based in China, informed them that their contracts would end by Thursday and that they would be paid for their work in January.
Advertisement
Another employee who was retrenched told Channel NewsAsia that during his final days of employment, Ofo had instructed him to stop responding to customer queries on the firm's app and social media accounts.
READ: CASE warns Ofo Singapore as users complain of fewer bikes
"We had a lot of complaints from customers about malfunctioning bicycles and some requesting a refund for their subscription fees. We felt bad but we were specifically instructed to ignore these," he added.
NO NOTICE TO SURRENDER LICENCE: LTA
Responding to Channel NewsAsia, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) confirmed on Friday that it had not received any notice from Ofo that it intends to surrender its operating licence.
LTA added that it is in touch with Ofo on its compliance with all regulatory requirements, and it will continue to monitor the company’s ability to meet the demands.
In January, LTA announced that Ofo had breached multiple rules, despite being given "an ample preparation period" for compliance. For instance, the company did not reduce its bicycle fleet to the stipulated maximum fleet size of 10,000, despite multiple warnings and regulatory action taken against them.
READ: Ofo faces suspension after breaching regulatory requirements: LTA
In its reply, LTA reiterated that it intends to suspend Ofo’s licence if the company fails to meet regulatory requirements by Feb 13.
In December, Ofo's chief executive Dai Wei said the Chinese bike-sharing start-up was battling “immense” cash flow problems and disbanding the firm has been considered as an option.
Dai has also been added to China's social credit blacklist, which bars him from buying property or going on vacation.
NO COMPENSATION FOR SACKED EMPLOYEES
Another former employee, who was in the Ofo Singapore operations team for slightly more than a year and was let go on Thursday, said he was surprised by how the company did not offer him and his colleagues the one-month compensation they were due based on the terms of their employment contract.
However, he did not press Ofo’s management for it because he was afraid the company would withhold their salaries for the month of January if they raised any objections.
“It dawned on us that if we don’t accept the mutual termination of the contract with no other clauses, we might not be able to get our salary for January. And this is not something the team wants, especially with Chinese New Year coming,” he said.
“We don’t have a choice, we just want to bring home the bacon."
A fourth employee who was sacked told Channel NewsAsia that the manner in which they were informed of the termination was “unprofessional and rude”.
“There was no document to explain the terms of the termination, no discussion with human resources to explain why there was no compensation. It was a take-it-or-leave-it offer,” he said.
In response to queries from Channel NewsAsia, a Ministry of Manpower spokesperson from the Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation, urged the Ofo employees affected to approach the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) for assistance “early” to help resolve their compensation woes.
“For employees who are retrenched, Workforce Singapore and NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) will offer employment assistance services, such as career coaching and job matching, through the Adapt and Grow initiative,” the spokesperson said.
Additionally, the spokesperson also urged employers to communicate any intention for retrenchment “early and before public notice” is made.
Channel NewsAsia has reached out to Ofo Singapore and its acting general manager Jack Zhou for clarification on the company’s operational status in Singapore and on claims that it owes its former staff compensation.
Source: CNA/am(hm)
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Ofo has 'practically ceased' operations, sacked employees say, no official notice made to LTA
Singapore
Ofo has 'practically ceased' operations, sacked employees say, no official notice made to LTA
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Ofo bicycles file
File photo of ofo bicycles. (Photo: AFP/Eric Piermont)
By Amir Yusof
02 Feb 2019 06:29AM
(Updated: 02 Feb 2019 06:30AM)
Share this content
Bookmark
SINGAPORE: Former employees from bike-sharing company Ofo, who had their contracts terminated this week, said that the firm’s operations have “practically ceased” in Singapore as there were no personnel left.
The ex-employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Ofo terminated around 10 members of staff from the operations division on Thursday (Jan 31), and there were no officials left to move and maintain its fleet of bicycles on the streets.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
The contracts of hundreds of Ofo Singapore employees were also terminated in November, Channel NewsAsia had earlier reported.
A senior member of Ofo’s operations team, said that the team was instructed to stop recovering bicycles parked indiscriminately on the final three days of their employment this week.
“Moving forward, any requests from the government to move the bicycles will not be attended to. There are no more Ofo officials in Singapore. They are all in China. The company has practically ceased its operations in Singapore,” he said.
The employees who were sacked received a call from Ofo’s acting general manager Jack Zhou last Monday. Mr Zhou, who is based in China, informed them that their contracts would end by Thursday and that they would be paid for their work in January.
Advertisement
Another employee who was retrenched told Channel NewsAsia that during his final days of employment, Ofo had instructed him to stop responding to customer queries on the firm's app and social media accounts.
READ: CASE warns Ofo Singapore as users complain of fewer bikes
"We had a lot of complaints from customers about malfunctioning bicycles and some requesting a refund for their subscription fees. We felt bad but we were specifically instructed to ignore these," he added.
NO NOTICE TO SURRENDER LICENCE: LTA
Responding to Channel NewsAsia, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) confirmed on Friday that it had not received any notice from Ofo that it intends to surrender its operating licence.
LTA added that it is in touch with Ofo on its compliance with all regulatory requirements, and it will continue to monitor the company’s ability to meet the demands.
In January, LTA announced that Ofo had breached multiple rules, despite being given "an ample preparation period" for compliance. For instance, the company did not reduce its bicycle fleet to the stipulated maximum fleet size of 10,000, despite multiple warnings and regulatory action taken against them.
READ: Ofo faces suspension after breaching regulatory requirements: LTA
In its reply, LTA reiterated that it intends to suspend Ofo’s licence if the company fails to meet regulatory requirements by Feb 13.
In December, Ofo's chief executive Dai Wei said the Chinese bike-sharing start-up was battling “immense” cash flow problems and disbanding the firm has been considered as an option.
Dai has also been added to China's social credit blacklist, which bars him from buying property or going on vacation.
NO COMPENSATION FOR SACKED EMPLOYEES
Another former employee, who was in the Ofo Singapore operations team for slightly more than a year and was let go on Thursday, said he was surprised by how the company did not offer him and his colleagues the one-month compensation they were due based on the terms of their employment contract.
However, he did not press Ofo’s management for it because he was afraid the company would withhold their salaries for the month of January if they raised any objections.
“It dawned on us that if we don’t accept the mutual termination of the contract with no other clauses, we might not be able to get our salary for January. And this is not something the team wants, especially with Chinese New Year coming,” he said.
“We don’t have a choice, we just want to bring home the bacon."
A fourth employee who was sacked told Channel NewsAsia that the manner in which they were informed of the termination was “unprofessional and rude”.
“There was no document to explain the terms of the termination, no discussion with human resources to explain why there was no compensation. It was a take-it-or-leave-it offer,” he said.
In response to queries from Channel NewsAsia, a Ministry of Manpower spokesperson from the Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation, urged the Ofo employees affected to approach the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) for assistance “early” to help resolve their compensation woes.
“For employees who are retrenched, Workforce Singapore and NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) will offer employment assistance services, such as career coaching and job matching, through the Adapt and Grow initiative,” the spokesperson said.
Additionally, the spokesperson also urged employers to communicate any intention for retrenchment “early and before public notice” is made.
Channel NewsAsia has reached out to Ofo Singapore and its acting general manager Jack Zhou for clarification on the company’s operational status in Singapore and on claims that it owes its former staff compensation.
Source: CNA/am(hm)
Tagged Topics
transport
bike-sharing
Share this content
Bookmark
More stories for you
Supreme Court puts temporary hold on Louisiana abortion restrictions Toggle share menu
Democrat Cory Booker announces White House run Toggle share menu
GM meets with lawmakers over racism allegations at Ohio plant Toggle share menu
image: https://images.outbrainimg.com/tran...sImgiOjIwMCwiZCI6MS41LCJjcyI6MCwiZiI6NH0.webp
Aloysius Pang ‘precious’ to the family: Brother
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More information about Channel News Asia
jump to top of page
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Asia
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Business
Sport
Technology
Health
Commentary
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About Us
About Channel NewsAsia
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Contact Us
Advertise with us
Contact Sales
Online Advertising
TV Advertising
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Please enter your email address
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Copyright© Mediacorp 2019. Mediacorp Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.
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image: https://secure-sg.imrworldwide.com/...ttps://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore
image: https://rp.gwallet.com/r1/cm/p46
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...ations-sacked-employees-bike-sharing-11195470
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Temasek jumps into China’s bike-rental startup war with investment in Mobike
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/20/t...rental-startup-war-with-investment-in-mobike/
LTA awards licences to six bike-sharing operators; ofo to downsize fleet to 10,000
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...rs-ofo-mobike-grab-licences-downsize-10875154
https://www.sgbike.com.sg
Someone should find out who has been investing in SG Bike.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/20/t...rental-startup-war-with-investment-in-mobike/
LTA awards licences to six bike-sharing operators; ofo to downsize fleet to 10,000
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...rs-ofo-mobike-grab-licences-downsize-10875154
https://www.sgbike.com.sg
Someone should find out who has been investing in SG Bike.
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LTA limits on fleet sizes disappoint Ofo but experts see long-term benefits
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/bike-sharing-lta-limits-on-fleet-sizes-disappoint-ofo-10769286
1) PAP govt sees a potential money-making venture.
2) Cripples the existing players with excessive regulations.
3) Existing players cease operations.
4) PAP govt (Temasek or an intermediary) inserts their own companies into the market.
5) ???
6) Profit.
---
Basically the story of NTUC Fairprice supermarkets, and there should be more examples out there.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/bike-sharing-lta-limits-on-fleet-sizes-disappoint-ofo-10769286
1) PAP govt sees a potential money-making venture.
2) Cripples the existing players with excessive regulations.
3) Existing players cease operations.
4) PAP govt (Temasek or an intermediary) inserts their own companies into the market.
5) ???
6) Profit.
---
Basically the story of NTUC Fairprice supermarkets, and there should be more examples out there.
Similar threads
