TOKYO: The Japanese owner of 7-Eleven announced plans on Thursday to spin off non-core operations into a new holding company, a move seen as fending off a takeover bid by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Seven & i Holdings “resolved at the management meeting held today to establish an intermediate holding company… that will preside over the Company’s supermarket food business, specialty store and other businesses”, a statement said.
It said it would consider an initial public offering (IPO) of the new unit “in order to unlock value for the Company’s shareholders and other stakeholders”.
7-Eleven is the world’s biggest convenience store chain and has more than 85,000 outlets worldwide, around a quarter of those in Japan.
Seven & i rejected a takeover offer worth $40 billion last month from Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), which owns Circle K.
The firm had said that the proposal, which would be the biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese firm, “grossly” undervalued its business and could face regulatory hurdles.
Seven & i said on Wednesday it had received a revised offer but declined to give details.
Bloomberg News and other media outlets reported that the new offer totalled around seven trillion yen ($47 billion).
AFP