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oBikes still being cleared as deadline nears

This article is more than 12 months old

Some town council chairmen have seen fall in number of the bicycles

Bike-sharing company oBike's bicycles continue to be cleared from the streets here, two weeks ahead of the deadline.

Ang Mo Kio Town Council chairman Ang Hin Kee said more than 60 per cent of the oBikes in his area had been removed. This includes an open field in Fernvale, where about 200 oBikes, gathered by the town council, could be seen earlier this month.

Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council chairman Zainal Sapari said he had seen a significant decrease in the number of oBikes.

Jurong-Clementi Town Council chairman Ang Wei Neng, however, said the removal of oBikes had been marginal in his area.

"We still have more than 2,000 oBike bicycles in Jurong-Clementi town," he said.

oBike - which closed last month after starting here in January last year - has about 70,000 bikes across the island.

The Land Transport Authority had, on July 5, given oBike until the end of this month to clear all its bicycles from public areas here.

The authority said it would step in to clear the remaining bicycles - and charge the relevant fees to oBike - if the company failed to do so by the deadline.

The Straits Times understands that at least two different metal recycling companies - in Sungei Kadut and Tuas - have been responsible for scrapping oBike's two-wheelers.

SCRAPPING

Checks found thousands of the silver-and-yellow bikes at these two facilities.

Lawyer Nicolas Tang said oBike's liquidators had likely found scrapping the bikes to be the faster and cheaper option to recover funds for creditors, including users who had paid oBike deposits.

"A company can also sell its assets instead of scrapping them. However it would need to find the right buyers at the right prices for the sale to go through," said the Farallon Law managing director, adding this would take time and effort.

Dr Park Byung Joon, an associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences School of Business, said the sheer number of oBikes meant the two-wheelers could take a long time to be sold off.

Meanwhile, some 3,000 oBike users have submitted claims for a refund of their deposits through a website set up by liquidators FTI Consulting. About $6.3 million in deposits is owed to users.

Lawyers, however, previously told ST that consumers, as unsecured creditors, are usually last in line when liquidators distribute the assets of a company to pay off its debts.

One user, Mr Lim Wen Sheng, said making a claim was a hassle, adding he had to dig through his credit card statements to find out when he made the deposit.

"It is difficult for users to remember when they registered," said the 33-year-old, who works in information technology.

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