Like Bending Spoons, which we also discussed today, this IPO is polarizing opinions, notably because the invasion of e-scooters and e-bikes on sidewalks in London, Madrid, New York or Paris has not been smooth.

Neutron Holdings, the company behind Lime, backed by Uber, Andreessen Horowitz and an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, warns in its IPO prospectus that it expects to face a very steep legal bill in the future, a consequence of the "deaths and injuries" caused by its vehicles!

MarketScreener notes that another headwind could quickly weigh on results: for now, Lime has deployed its fleet in public space while paying only a token sum to municipalities, which are still willing to do almost anything to encourage "soft mobility".

A clampdown is likely, along with the emergence of ever more crowded competition from private, public and semi-public players, as shown by the successful trials currently being run in several European metropolitan areas.

That said, Lime's IPO, like that of Bending Spoons, is unusual in that the group's business is currently profitable, at least on paper.

Lime, which has doubled its revenue in four years, homing in on $1bn, is coming to market with free cash flow of almost $100m in 2025. Against that, a few days after it started trading, its enterprise value stood at $2.4bn.

Indeed, this profit could have been artificially inflated on the eve of the IPO, for instance through a throttled investment program, and that investors were not told the full truth about the real useful life of the group's assets.

Eight years ago, it did not exceed a month: that was the respite the various vehicles in circulation had before being disabled, stolen, or dumped in a canal. However, for the IPO, this asset useful life was raised to five years, which some suddenly find highly optimistic.

Indeed, Lime needs to provide reassurance to investors, because the urban micromobility sector has been marked by a string of bankruptcies, as well as Bird's failed IPO, which ended in liquidation three years after its listing on the Nasdaq.

A growth lever that remains largely untapped lies in the advertising potential of the group's vehicles, and in access to its users' personal data.