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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Japan’s Seven & i, which operates the 7-Eleven chain, is mulling a takeover by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, owner of the Circle K convenience store brand.
- At Seven & i’s market value of roughly $31 billion on Friday, the deal would be the largest foreign purchase of a Japanese company if completed.
- The news sent Seven & i shares surging in Tokyo trading Monday, closing about 23% higher.
Japan’s Seven & i, which operates the 7-Eleven chain, is mulling a takeover by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, owner of the Circle K convenience store brand.
The deal, if completed, would be the biggest takeover by a foreign company targeting a Japanese firm.
Seven & i said Monday it has set up a special committee of independent outside directors to consider the offer. It said it would “conduct a prompt, careful and comprehensive review of the proposal.”
Seven & i Shares Soar on News
The news sent Seven & i shares surging in Tokyo trading, closing about 23% higher. Seven & i closed trading Friday with a market cap of roughly $31 billion, before the potential deal was disclosed.
The largest acquisition targeting a Japanese firm at present is the up to $22 billion deal that drugmaker Merck & Co. (MRK) struck last year for rights to jointly develop and commercialize three of Daiichi Sankyo’s candidate cancer drugs, according to data provider Dealogic.