Japanese retailer Seven & i Holdings, operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, said it has received a preliminary takeover offer from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Shares in Seven & i surged by 22.7% or their daily trading limit of 400 yen, giving it a market value of 5.6 trillion yen ($38 billion). Couche-Tard is valued at roughly $58 billion (€52.5 billion).
Seven & i said it has formed a special committee to review the proposal but no decision has been made by either the committee or board of directors.
Alimentation Couche-Tard did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of usual working hours.
'A Very Early Stage'
The talks are "at a very early stage," a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
If the deal goes through, this would be the largest ever buyout of a Japanese firm by an overseas company, according to the Nikkei business daily which first reported on the offer.
In 2020, Seven & i and Couche Tard were rival bidders to take over U.S. gas station chain Speedway, which the Japanese company ended up purchasing for $21 billion (€19.01 billion).
Seven & i has been under pressure from activist investors to sell off underperforming assets and double down on its global convenience store business centred around its flagship 7-Eleven brand.
TotalEnergies
In January, Alimentation Couche-Tard made a significant move by acquiring European retail assets from TotalEnergies, expanding its presence into four new countries. The acquisition included 100% of TotalEnergies' retail assets in Germany and the Netherlands, and a 60% controlling interest in Belgium and Luxembourg.
The deal added 2,175 sites to Couche-Tard's portfolio, with 1,191 locations in Germany, 562 in Belgium, 378 in the Netherlands, and 44 in Luxembourg. Some 69% of these properties are company-owned, while the remaining 31% are dealer-owned.
Additional reporting by ESM
