Japan's Seven & i Holdings said it plans to open 500 new convenience stores in the United States and Canada through 2027.
Seven & i's founding Ito family made an offer, estimated to be worth $58 billion (€55.2 billion), last month to take the company private amid a competing takeover offer from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard.
A company spokesman confirmed an earlier report by Kyodo about the plan for convenience stores in North America, adding that it was part of Seven & i's strategy to grow to 100,000 stores in 30 countries and regions by 2030.
Seven & i has more than 15,000 stores in North America currently but said in October it would close 444 underperforming stores in the region.
The Ito family aims to raise more than 1 trillion yen (€6.2 billion) from a listing of Seven & i's North America convenience store business, Bloomberg News reported this month.
Takeover Bid
Alimentation Couche-Tard 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 November.
Asked whether Couche-Tard could raise its bidding price further, CEO 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.
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 $47 billion, in what would be the largest-ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company.
