Whoosh confirms merger talks with UrentBike.ru

MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - PJSC Whoosh Holding, the parent company of the Whoosh kicksharing service, has confirmed merger talks with UrentBike.ru, but said no binding documents had been signed.

"Whoosh confirms talks have taken place and a request for clearance for a possible merger with UrentBike has been filed with the Federal Anti-monopoly Service. No binding documents regarding a potential acquisition by the company have been signed," the company told Interfax.

Whoosh added that it is considering various strategic scenarios for growth on the developing micromobility market and assessing a wide range of options with a view to increasing the efficiency of its business, sustainability of its operating model and long-term value for users and the cities where it has a presence.

"Potential deals, including in the format of asset integration, should be seen as an instrument to accelerate strategy implementation through potential synergies in the area of optimizing operating processes, improving the quality of service and further developing infrastructure. Given economically sound conditions, such solutions could help increase safety and mobility for users, as well as develop the urban transport environment and projects to localize individual mobility devices and components, on which Whoosh has historically focused," the company said.

Urent, which is part of the portfolio of telecom group MTS's ecosystem holding company Erion, told Interfax that the company and its shareholders "are discussing various development strategies, including a merger with other players, based on market realities."

"The configuration and terms of such deals - an equal merger, stakes of players as part of M&A - are based on the condition of each specific business at the current moment. Negotiations with other companies on the market and discussion of participants' stakes in a possible merger are taking place with consideration of our market position," Urent said.

PJSC Whoosh Holding carried out an IPO in December 2022. More than 60% of shares in the company are owned by its cofounders, including CEO Dmitry Chuiko with 37.8%, and deputy CEOs Oleg Zhuravlev, Yegor Bayandin and Sergei Lavrentyev with 4.1%, 10.8% and 6.5%, respectively. The free float is 37.7%.

Whoosh operates in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Chile and Columbia. The company ran into problems in 2025 amid restrictions on mobile Internet services, disruptions in geolocation services and bad weather at the start of the season. The number of trips made by users fell 7% to 138.8 million. However, in Russia the decline in demand slowed to 5% year-on-year in the second half of 2025 from 10% year-on-year in the first half.

The company's revenue from scooter sharing services fell 13.9% to 10.8 billion rubles in the first nine months of 2025.

Urent operates in 202 locations in Russia and has a fleet of more than 160,000 scooters. The company's gross merchandise value grew by 22% to 13 billion rubles in the first nine months of 2025, as the number of trips by users jumped 26% to 106.7 million.