Takeover bid for Japan's 7-Eleven owner from Canadian chain

The Japanese operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores is being wooed by a Canadian peer. But securing a deal won’t be easy

People walk out of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Yokohama on August 23, 2024
(Image credit: YUICHI YAMAZAKI / Contributor)

Shares in Japan’s Seven & i Holdings, which operates 7-Eleven convenience stores worldwide, have risen after it said it was “open to discussions” with Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard if the latter improves its $39 billion takeover bid, say P.R. Venkat and Megumi Fujikawa in The Wall Street Journal. Seven & i rejected Couche-Tard’s previous offer last week on the grounds that its proposal “significantly underestimated the company’s value and potential”. This has led to speculation that Couche-Tard will raise its offer, although there may be antitrust concerns over any deal as both firms have large networks in the US

Competition will certainly be a “key consideration” in any deal, says Lex in the Financial Times. A merger “would create a global convenience-store leader with more than 100,000 stores”. US regulators will definitely want to become involved. Given 7-Eleven’s operations in the US, both in terms of its own stores and the franchises of other brands that it runs, the combined entity would be America’s “biggest convenience-store operator”. What’s more, because the deal would be the largest foreign takeover of a Japanese firm, Japanese authorities will also be under pressure to scrutinise it. 

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

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