By Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese retailer Seven & i holdings, operator of the 7-Eleven comfort retailer chain, stated on Monday it has acquired a preliminary takeover supply from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Shares in Seven & i surged by 22.7% or their each day buying and selling restrict of 400 yen, giving it a market worth of 5.6 trillion yen ($38 billion). Couche-Tard is valued at roughly $58 billion.
Seven & i stated it has fashioned a particular committee to overview the proposal however no determination has been made by both the committee or board of administrators.
Alimentation Couche-Tard didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark outdoors of traditional working hours.
The talks are “at a really early stage,” a supply conversant in the matter instructed Reuters.
If the deal goes via, this is able to be the biggest ever buyout of a Japanese agency by an abroad firm, in keeping with the enterprise each day which first reported on the supply.
In 2020, Seven & i and Couche Tard had been rival bidders to take over U.S. gasoline station chain Speedway, which the Japanese firm ended up buying for $21 billion.
Seven & i has been beneath strain from activist traders to unload underperforming belongings and double down on its world comfort retailer enterprise centred round its flagship 7-Eleven model.
($1 = 146.2200 yen)
