Canadian retail giant Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) has made a bid for 7-Eleven’s Japanese parent company Seven & i. The value of the offer has not been disclosed, but Seven & i was valued at $31bln before the news of the offer broke.
Shares in Seven & i jumped over 20% after the buyout offer was made public.
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The Japanese firm has said they have convened a special committee that would “conduct a prompt, careful and comprehensive review of the proposal.”
If the bid is accepted, it would be the biggest foreign takeover ever in Japan. Foreign buyouts are rare in the country, but recent regulatory changes for mergers and acquisitions could tip the scales in Couche-Tard’s favor.
ACT runs 17,000 shops in over 30 countries spanning across North America, Europe and Asia. 7-Eleven has 85,000 stores worldwide in 20 countries.
The move has the potential to alert competition watchdogs in North America, given ACT runs over 9,000 shops in the US and Canada and 7-Eleven 13,000.
