TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Seven & i Holdings is set to abandon a $58 billion management buyout led by the retailer’s founding family after trading house Itochu withdrew from participating in the plan, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Thursday.
The 7-Eleven convenience store owner will decide the matter at a board meeting soon and will aim to boost its corporate value independently, in the wake of rejecting a $47 billion takeover proposal by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, the newspaper reported.
A Seven & i spokesperson could not immediately be reached for a comment when contacted by Reuters on the phone.
Itochu, the owner of Seven & i’s rival convenience store chain FamilyMart, was bowing out from the management-led buyout, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the Canadian retailer said on Wednesday that Couche-Tard remained committed to reaching a mutually agreeable transaction with Seven & i.
After receiving a takeover bid from Couche-Tard last year, Seven & i’s founding Ito family had begun talks to take the convenience store owner private in what would be the largest management buyout in history if successful.
Couche-Tard had offered $38.5 billion, but raised it to $47 billion after Seven & i rejected the initial bid.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jamie Freed)
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