Two major investors join in Seven & i buyout talks
Reports have KKR, a global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions, is looking to take a stake in Seven & i Holdings Co. founding family’s bid to take the firm private.
This comes a week after another private equity company, Apollo, made an over 1.5 trillion yen offer to participate in the planned buyout bid. KKR offer to take part is of a similar amount and it would involve the firm taking an equity stake in the owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain.
These moves come after Seven & i Holdings has rejected several bids from Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. offered to take on the company for US$47 billion, after it had earlier offered $38.6 billion in August of last year.
READ: Seven & i Holdings reports dip in net profit in latest fiscal results
Seven & i Holdings rejected both bids, saying that it undervalued the company, and the Japanese government classified Seven & i as "core" to Japan's national security, as the company’s 7-Eleven stores in Japan operate as more than a simple convenience stores, making available government services and play an important role in national emergencies, ensuring during a national disaster that food and other critical supplies are delivered to affected communities.
"If Seven & i's convenience store business is in foreign hands and run solely for profits, we'll have to think about various things, such as whether we can we get full support when our people affected by the disaster are suffering," said economy minister Ryosei Akazawa.
