Couche-Tard opens Japanese entity in ongoing 7-Eleven acquisition efforts
Nikkei Asia is reporting that Alimentation Couche-Tard has established what it says in an entity in Japan as the Canadian convenience store operator looks to move ahead once more with plans to take on Seven & i Holdings, the operator of 7-Eleven.
According to Nikkei Asia, Couche-Tard has a registered a subsidiary with the relevant Japanese authorities and confirmed to Nikkei Asia that this is to create a path in establishing an office in Japan sometime in the future that would assist the company in its bid to take on the company.
When contacted by Nikkei Asia about the plans for this new entity, as wo when it will open and staffing, Couche-Tard would not provide any more details.
Since making its first bid to acquire Seven & i last year with a non-binding and preliminary offer of US$14,86 per share in cash valued at US$38.5 billion, and later raising its offer by some 22% to US$47 billion, it has faced pushback from the board at Seven & i saying the offers undervalued the company and failed to address regulatory concerns. Seven & i’s founding family later began efforts to take the company private, consulting with various Japanese partners and financial houses to raise the needed funds to do so, only to announce last week it has called off such plan.
Nikkei along with other media are also reporting today the wake of the failed effort to take the company private, Seven & i’s president Ryuichi Isaka looks to be replaced director Stephen Hayes Dacus who has worked previously with Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing and Walmart’s Japanese business.
