TOKYO, JAPAN – 2024/10/11: Logo at Seven & i Holdings headquarters in Tokyo.
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Share from 7-Eleven owner of Seven & i It surged nearly 11% on Wednesday after reports said the company’s founding family raised more than $50 billion to take the company private this fiscal year.
According to a report by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, the founding family will raise more than 8 trillion yen ($51.66 billion) from “three Japanese megabanks and major American financial institutions,” according to a Google translation of the report in Japanese.
The funds will be used by a special company to carry out a tender offer for Seven & i shares, with the aim of completing the plan by March 2025.
If this acquisition goes through, it will be the largest buyout of a Japanese company to date, NHK said.
Seven and I said “there is no decision on the proposed deal with Junro Ito, Ito Kogyo, ACT (Alimentation Couche-Tard) or any other third party at this time,” Reuters reported.
Junro Ito is the vice president of Seven & i and the son of the late Masatoshi Ito, the founder of Seven & i. Ito-Kogyo is a company affiliated with the vice president, and Seven and i are the two largest stakeholders with 8.2% of the shares.
Canadian store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard first made an offer of $14.86 per share to take over Seven & i in August. The offer was rejected, with Seven & i saying it “grossly undervalues” the company
ACT then reportedly raised the offer in October by over 22% to $18.19 per share, valuing Seven & i at 7 trillion Japanese yen, or about $47 billion. Seven & i said in a statement last month that “has maintained, and intends to continue to maintain, the confidentiality of the current discussions with ACT at this time.”
In September, Seven&i was designated as “core” for national security in Japan, although the company said the designation was unrelated to ACT’s takeover bid, according to a Reuters report.
Foreign investors must file a national security review with the Japanese government if they intend to acquire a 1% or more stake in a “core” Japanese company.
