US$47 billion 7-Eleven shopping trip hasn’t gone as hoped.

Pretty much every time we walk into a branch of 7-Eleven Japan, we spot at least a half-dozen things we immediately want to buy. However, even our 7-Eleven super-fan status pales in comparison to that of Alimentation Couche-Tard, who said “You know what? Let’s just buy the company!”

Last August it became known that the Canadian convenience store operator, which runs more than a half-dozen chains including Circle K, Couche-Tard, and Casey’s General Stores (no relation), had put in an acquisition bid for 7-Eleven’s parent company Seven & i Holdings, whose subsidiaries also include the Ito-Yokado Japanese supermarket chain, Seven Bank online banking system, and majority ownership of Japanese housewares chain Loft. Alimentation Couche-Tard, which was reportedly seeking to acquire all of Seven & i Holdings’s operations overseas and a 40-percent stake within Japan, made an initial offer of US$37 billion.

The Canadian corporation later bumped that up to $47 billion, and said it was willing to go even higher depending on non-publicly available information regarding Seven & i’s finances. The two companies entered into a non-disclosure agreement in April with the expressed purpose of furthering such delicate negotiations, but three months later, Alimentation Couche-Tard has decided to call the whole thing off, though it feels as though Seven & i has forced it into that decision.

In a letter addressed to the Seven & i Holdings board of directors and since made public, Alimentation Couche-Tard accuses the company of stalling and a bad-faith lack of transparency, even after entering into the non-disclosure agreement. “There has been no sincere or constructive engagement from Seven & i that would facilitate the advancement of any proposal, contrary to comments made publicly by Seven & i representatives,” says the letter, condemning their now-former negotiation counterparts of running “a calculated campaign of obfuscation and delay.”

As a result, as of July 16 Alimentation Couche-Tard has withdrawn its bid, and it would appear that any other company interested in acquiring a sizeable piece of Seven & I Holdings will need to be willing to endure a very long process. But hey, we’re patient people here at SoraNews24, so we’ll get things started with our bid.

Ball’s in your court, Seven & i Holdings.

Source: Alimentation Couche-Tard, NHK News Web, Yahoo! Japan News/Jiji/AFPBB News, CNN
Photos ©SoraNews24
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