Rumors spread of Mobike purchase

China's online lifestyle platform Meituan recently made a deal acquiring bike-share company Mobike for $3.7 billion (23.26 billion yuan), according to business news portal Lanjinger, which cited an insider Tuesday.

Although Meituan and Mobike have no comment on the alleged leak, the news portal said the deal will be officially announced this week.

According to Lanjinger's report, Mobike's debt currently surpasses $1 billion, including 6 billion yuan in users' guarantee deposits that have been spent and 1 billion yuan in outstanding debt to suppliers.

Without the debt, the value of Mobike is $2.7 billion, lower than its $3.45 billion valuation after the previous round of fundraising.

In recent months, the firm has tried to seek a new independent funding source.

However, its liquidity is still weak and high operating expenses have trapped the firm, as it lacks money to maintain its normal business running.

Lanjinger cited Mobike's financial statement showing the firm's monthly operating expenses were over 400 million yuan, but last December the firm's revenue was only 110 million.

Now, the firm has 9 million bikes but its daily orders number fewer than 10 million. To honor its orders and avoid a slide, Mobike needs $800 million to $1 billion a year, the insider said.

Currently, Mobike's shareholders have given up supporting the firm and no new investors want to provide money to it, Lanjinger said.