Obike Scrap: City checks next steps

Munich – At night, they appeared a year ago, the yellow rental bike company Obike. The hope that they can disappear so quickly from the cityscape this summer does not seem to be fulfilling. Because Obike is visibly broke. In Singapore, two insolvency administrators have taken the helm. The city wants to examine the consequences of this development for the business of Obike in Germany and the wheels parked a thousand times in the streets of Munich.

It's an equation with a lot of unknowns. "We have no empirical value for such a case," says Florian Paul, the Radverkehrsbeauftragte of the city of Munich. For the city Obike has not been reached in recent weeks, the boss of the company in Germany had already launched in March, his successor came from China first. So now, bankruptcy. Paul: "I can not yet judge the room for maneuver of the city."

7000 wheels in the streets of Munich

Basically, following a decision of the Administrative Court of Hamburg in 2009, the bicycle suppliers rent them install in the public area without permission. As a result, the city had no way of stemming the wild growth of Obike – meanwhile, more than 7,000 wheels were parked in the streets of Munich. The wheels did not meet the criteria of a scrap wheel and nor were they abandoned. This could change in case of bankruptcy.

The scope of an Obike bankruptcy of the city should be clarified by the lawyers of the administration. Because the impact of insolvency in Singapore on the German subsidiary is still not clear. Of course, Obike went bankrupt in his home market in Singapore, having had to cease operations in late June, because the island government had introduced stricter rules for rental bike providers. Obike could not or did not want to comply, then a large part of the clients demanded his deposit – between 12 and 30 euros per person. As a result, Obike did not put aside the deposit, but used it for operations and the acquisition of new wheels. More than 1000 customers who have recovered their bond, until now have come out empty

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Looking for Difficult Indices

Obike has been diving into Germany for a long time, so looking for responsible people is difficult. The imprint of the company's website is the OBG Germany GmbH in Berlin as the operator. The specified phone number does not work, emails remain unanswered. Managing Director is Adrianus Gertrudus Maria Sas. He was also registered at Obike Holland Limited BV as Chief Executive Officer until 27 February. After that, according to the entry of the Dutch business register Zhongqing Zhang took the lead.

If Obike stays in a dive center, it is not excluded that Munich remains on the remaining yellow wheels. "For Obike, we were somewhat of an experimental lab," says Paul retrospectively. In no other German city, the business has been so mbadive. "In bankruptcy, we have to check who picks up the wheels and who gets the bill," says Paul

. Obikes could therefore be another case for municipal garbage collectors. Park & ​​Ride GmbH removes scrap wheels twice a year from all over the city. Last year, she collected a good 3100 bicycles. The scrap removal is not really cheap: the costs for 'implementation, public relations, storage and administration are estimated at around 300,000 net euros a year,' says a Council decision Munich. 100 euros per bike. The number of obese still stationed in the streets of Munich is uncertain – estimates are in the range of 2000 to 3000.

Marc Kniekamp