Abdelrahman
The founding family of 7-Eleven’s parent firm in Japan, Seven & i Holdings, announced on Thursday that they were unable to secure financing for a buyout attempt. This news comes months after they initiated a bid exceeding $50 billion to counter a foreign takeover.
Seven & i Holdings, which oversees a vast network of approximately 85,000 convenience stores mainly located across Asia and the United States, stated in a press release that they would explore other options, including a previously rejected offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Junro Ito, an executive at Seven & i and the founder’s son, along with the family’s asset management firm, Ito-Kogyo, began their buyout efforts in November, following Couche-Tard’s unsolicited takeover approach.
Couche-Tard, which operates more than 16,000 Couche-Tard and Circle K locations throughout North America and Europe, initially proposed a $38 billion bid in August. Seven & i rejected this offer in September, deeming it a significant undervaluation of their business. In response, Couche-Tard returned the following month with a revised $47 billion offer.
If Couche-Tard succeeds in this endeavor, it could mark the largest foreign-led acquisition of a Japanese company to date. On Thursday, Seven & i’s stock plummeted by 11 percent.
This ongoing struggle for control of 7-Eleven exemplifies the extensive changes currently affecting corporate Japan, where this convenience store chain is viewed as a national icon, making any foreign takeover a particularly challenging prospect. Japan has historically been seen as a tough market for foreign entities pursuing mergers and acquisitions, leading analysts to question whether Couche-Tard could operate 7-Eleven more effectively than Seven & i.
Moreover, for over a decade, Japanese officials have urged domestic firms to consider takeover proposals more seriously, indicating a desire to move away from an era of unyielding companies that could easily dismiss foreign bids. Seven & i has expressed concerns that Couche-Tard’s proposed acquisition could initiate competition investigations in the United States, as both companies are leading players in the convenience store segment.
In their Thursday statement, the Japanese corporation mentioned that they were collaborating with Couche-Tard to assess whether an alternative proposal addressing regulatory concerns could be feasible.
