Shared micromobility company Helbiz said it will do a reverse stock split in an effort to get back in line with the Nasdaq, which has a delisting message last July because Helbiz’s share was too low.
Helbiz also rebrands to Micromobility. com Inc. to position itself as a micromobility brand offering retail, rental, shared micromobility and *checks notes* sports streaming services.
The rebrand coincides with the launch of a new brick-and-mortar store, which includes establishing brick-and-mortar stores in the US, starting with the first store in SoHo, New York City in the next 60 days. There also is a ecommerce site available today, with a small selection of e-scooters, e-bikes, helmets and water bottles.
Due to the name change, shares of Micromobility.com will trade starting Friday under the new ticker symbol MCOM and its warrants under MCOMW. Helbiz’s share price closed at $0.12 on Thursday, down 4.5%, then plunged as much as 20% in after-hours trading.
We have many questions, and hellbiz Micromobility.com did not respond to businessroundups.org’s requests for answers. Top-of-mind questions include: How does the company pay for even one brick-and-mortar store with the meager cash it had in the bank at the end of 2022? When does the company think it will be back in line with the Nasdaq in terms of stock price? Do they have the other Nasdaq delisting warning about the lack of an audit committee of at least three independent directors? Do I really need to unsubscribe Micromobility.com from any future article about this company?
That question about financing a physical store, and even an e-commerce store, is a real one. As a reminder, Helbiz ended the year with $429,000 in cash and cash equivalents. The company’s revenue was $15.5 million on top of a net loss of $82 million.
Okay, Micromobility.com
It is not clear which vehicles Helbiz will sell in its physical stores. After a quick look at the new website, Micromobility.com is offering three e-scooter models and three e-bike models as a range of prizes. On the scooter side, there’s the HelbizOne, which should be the company’s own e-scooter designed for retail, plus a pair of Okai Neon IIs. However, the HelbizOne and the Neon II in white are not yet in stock. They are available for pre-order with delivery expected in Q4 2023 and April 30, respectively.
Among its e-bike selection, Micromobility.com offers two models from Noko, an Italian urban e-bike brand with prices in the mid to expensive range, and the Wheels One (which to us is really more of a seated scooter). According to the websitethe Wheels One will also be available for long-term subscriptions for about $130 per month, but as a link to rent now leads nowhere, it is not clear if that service is currently active.
Recall that last November, Helbiz acquired Wheels Labs, a micromobility company that offers unique seated e-scooters for shared use or rental. Helbiz said the purchase would double annual sales and help increase profitability. Before that, Helbiz took over the Italian moped sharing company MiniMoto to grab a slice of the shared e-moped market. As part of the rebrand, Helbiz said it hopes to position itself as a “micromobility consolidator with a view to future M&A.”
The company continues to offer shared micromobility services for its three brands: Helbiz, Wheels and MiniMoto.
Reverse stock split
“The reverse stock split is primarily intended to bring the company into compliance with the minimum bid price requirement of the Nasdaq Capital Market and will make the bid price of our common stock more attractive to investors,” said Salvatore Palella, CEO of now Micromobility.com . in a statement.
In July, Helbiz received a delisting warning because the Nasdaq requires publicly traded securities to maintain a minimum bid price of $1 per share, and the company had been below that for 30 consecutive trading days.
The reverse stock split will be conducted at a ratio of 1-to-50 common stock, par value $0.00001, according to the company. This means that the total number of common shares outstanding will be reduced from 278.5 million to approximately 5.6 million, and the total number of Class B common shares outstanding will be reduced from approximately 14 million to 284,518. The changes will take effect when the market opens Friday, the company said.
Micromobility.com said each shareholder’s percentage ownership interest in the company and proportional voting rights will remain virtually unchanged, except for minor changes and adjustments of rounding fractional shares into whole shares.
For what it’s worth, Palella is the company’s largest shareholder, controlling about 37.2% of the voting power, according to a SEC filing. In addition, the dual class structure of the company’s common stock concentrates voting power in Palella, limiting an investor’s ability to influence the outcome of major transactions, such as a change of control. As a result of the way voting per share is structured, Palella owns approximately 60% of the voting rights of the company’s capital and thus has control over matters such as the election of directors and any mergers or consolidations.
