Couche-Tard makes preliminary takeover bid for Japan's Seven & i

Investing.com -- Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche Tard Inc (TSX:ATD ) has made a preliminary offer to buy Japan's Seven & i Holdings (TYO:3382 ), the owner of the 7-Eleven chain, said on Monday.

Seven & i Holdings in a statement said that the company has received a confidential, non-binding acquisition proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard. 

In response to media reports regarding the bid, Seven & i Holdings confirmed that its board of Directors has formed a special committee to review the proposal. The committee is led by Stephen Hayes Dacus, who serves as chairperson of the board.

"We view 7&i's decision to keep independence of the committee as
positive, but hurdles remain on the scale of the transaction and antitrust issues," said analysts from Jefferies in a note. 

"Barring the pricing, we think this is a plausible proposal by Alimentation Couche-Tard given its track record of closing 75 M&A deals (+13k units) since 2004, foucsing on growing its US footprint and its $10bn EBITDA target by 2028, which equates to a 12% CAGR," the anlysts said. 

The company’s statement clarified that no decision has yet been made regarding the acceptance or rejection of Alimentation Couche-Tard’s proposal. 

The board and the special committee have not entered into any formal discussions with Alimentation Couche-Tard or pursued alternative transactions at this time, the company said. 

Couche-Tard confirmed on Monday that it has submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire Seven & i Holdings. While the company said it is focused on reaching a mutually beneficial agreement, it also cautioned that there is no guarantee a deal will be finalized, as per a Bloomberg report.

Shares of Seven & i Holdings closed 22.7% higher on Monday.

 

Source: Investing.com