7-Eleven Rejects Takeover Bid From Big Canadian Chain

The owner of 7-Eleven has rejected a buyout offer from a Canadian convenience store giant, snubbing a deal that likely would have been the largest foreign-led acquisition of a Japanese company.

The move, while expected, will put pressure on the Japanese company to show it is taking other steps to increase the company’s value for its shareholders.

The Tokyo-based operator of 7-Eleven, Seven & i Holdings, said last month that it had received an unsolicited takeover proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard.

In a letter to Couche-Tard released on Friday, Seven & i said its board of directors had concluded, based on a recommendation from a committee of independent directors, that the offer was not in the best interest of shareholders.

Seven & i said it had found that Couche-Tard’s offer “grossly undervalues our stand-alone path and the additional actionable avenues we see to realize and unlock shareholder value,” wrote Stephen Dacus, a Seven & i outside director and chair of the committee.

Alimentation Couche-Tard operates more that 16,000 Couche-Tard and Circle K stores across North America and Europe. Seven & i sits atop a vast network of 85,000 stores, primarily in Asia and the United States. Couche-Tard’s takeover of Seven & i would have positioned it as one of the world’s largest retail groups.