Canada's Couche-Tard makes preliminary bid for Japanese retail giant Seven & i

JAPANESE retailer Seven & i holdings, operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, said on Monday (Aug 19) it has received a preliminary takeover offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Shares in Seven & i surged by 22.7 per cent or their daily trading limit of 400 yen, giving it a market value of 5.6 trillion yen (S$50.3 billion). Couche-Tard is valued at roughly US$58 billion.

Seven & i said it has formed a special committee to review the proposal, but no decision has been made by either the committee or board of directors.

Alimentation Couche-Tard did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of usual working hours.

The talks are “at a very early stage,” a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

If the deal goes through, this would be the largest ever buyout of a Japanese firm by an overseas company, according to the Nikkei Business Daily, which first reported on the offer.

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In 2020, Seven & i and Couche Tard were rival bidders to take over US gas station chain Speedway, which the Japanese company ended up purchasing for US$21 billion.

Seven & i has been under pressure from activist investors to sell off underperforming assets and double down on its global convenience store business, centred around its flagship 7-Eleven brand. REUTERS