A 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo, on Aug. 19.Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. ATD-T is not considering a hostile takeover bid for Japan’s Seven & i, the Nikkei business daily quoted the Canadian suitor’s chairman and co-founder, Alain Bouchard, as saying.
In an interview with Japanese media conducted in Canada on Thursday, Mr. Bouchard said a hostile bid “was not among factors being considered,” indicating the company’s intention to secure an amicable acquisition deal, the Nikkei reported.
Couche-Tard, which competes with Seven & i in the North-American gas station market, in August made an initial bid to take over the Japanese retail giant. It later raised its offer to US$47-billion, in what would be the largest-ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company.
Seven & i, which operates more than 80,000 7-Eleven convenience stores around the world, is caught in a three-way tug-of-war between Couche-Tard, Seven & i’s founding family, which is proposing a management buyout, and company management who have said their growth plan can enhance value.
Asked whether Couche-Tard could raise its bidding price, chief executive Alex Miller, who also attended the interview, said: “The current proposed price is attractive for all stakeholders.”
The two companies have large shares in the United States convenience-store market, so a merger would likely face regulatory scrutiny and divestiture of stores in some regions to satisfy anti-monopoly rules.
In a Yomiuri newspaper report of the joint interview, Mr. Bouchard said his company had extended takeover proposals to Seven & i three times in all – in 2005, 2020 and 2024. He said it would take six months to deal with regulatory authorities after an acquisition and Couche-Tard had a plan on how to do so, Yomiuri reported.
Seven & i shares slid 1 per cent in early Tokyo trading on Friday compared to a 0.8-per-cent advance in the benchmark Nikkei gauge.