TOKYO (AFP) – Shares in the Japanese parent of 7-Eleven soared on Wednesday after a media report said its founding family wanted to take the firm private before the end of March as it looks to fend off a multibillion-dollar buyout offer.
Seven & i, owner of the world’s biggest convenience store chain, earlier this year rejected an offer of nearly USD40 billion from Canadian rival Alimentation Couche-Tard.
ACT has since sweetened its offer, which if completed would be the biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese company, creating a convenience store behemoth with some 100,000 outlets.
Last week Seven & i said it was studying a counter-offer from its vice president Junro Ito, the founder’s son, and his company Ito-Kogyo, which already has a stake of around eight percent.
Broadcaster NHK reported late Tuesday that they were seeking to raise more than JPY8 trillion (USD50 billion) from banks and to complete the takeover this fiscal year, which ends on March 31.
Seven & i told AFP that no official announcement had been made. The firm’s shares were up 8.4 per cent by the break of trade in Tokyo, having earlier rocketed 10 per cent.
The 7-Eleven franchise began in the United States, but it has been wholly owned by Seven & i since 2005.
Around a quarter of 7-Eleven stores are in Japan, where they are a cherished one-stop shop for everything from rice balls to concert tickets.
Couche-Tard, which began with one store in Canada’s city of Laval in 1980, now runs nearly 17,000 convenience outlets worldwide.
