Canadian acquisition of 7-Eleven konbini brand falls through
Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, which had submitted a takeover offer to Seven & I Holdings, the chain's Japanese parent company, has decided to withdraw its offer, citing the Japanese side's "distrust" of the project. Couche-Tard responded by announcing its intention to improve its revenue without foreign aid, despite significant financial difficulties.
The end has come for a proposed takeover that has been rocking the Japanese retail sector since last year. On July 16, Canadian company Alimentation Couche-Tard announced that it had withdrawn its offer to acquire Japanese company Seven & I Holdings, denouncing the lack of “constructive dialogue” in a letter addressed to the Japanese side, as reported by Japanese public broadcaster NHK .
In July 2024, the Canadian company presented a takeover offer of around 7,000 billion yen (40 billion euros) to acquire the entire company, and then “the two parties entered into negotiations after signing a confidentiality agreement,” the channel recalls. “In its letter, Alimentation Couche-Tard believes it did not receive sufficient information during the process of evaluating Seven & I Holdings’ assets, and accuses the latter’s management of deliberately delaying and compromising the talks,” continues the NHK website.
In the archipelago, Seven & I Holdings owns 7-Eleven, one of the leading brands of convenience stores known as konbini (a Japanese abbreviation for convenience store ). Omnipresent, it has no fewer than 53,000 stores nationwide and occupies a central place in the lives of Japanese people – not only can you buy snacks there, but you can also pay your electricity bills and even your taxes.
Seven & I Holdings' management responded to Couche-Tard's criticism in a statement released on July 17, denouncing "numerous errors" in the Canadian letter, according to information relayed by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily . "We will continue measures to create wealth ourselves," the management maintains, regretting that the Canadian side ended the talks "unilaterally."
It must be said that the Japanese company has always been “wary” of this project, the daily recalls. The Ito family, founders of the Seven & I Holdings group, allegedly tried to put a spanner in the works of the Canadian offer by considering a management buyout . “ However, due to a lack of financing, this idea, which would have required 8,000 to 9,000 billion yen (46 to 52 billion euros), failed,” the newspaper further indicates. Yomiuri Shimbun . Moreover, Seven & I Holdings changed management in May, aiming to increase the company's value independently and without foreign aid.
But it is clear that the Japanese group's activities are in decline, largely due to increased competition with other brands: -11% in terms of operating profit between March and May 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. “In August, the new management will publish its medium-term roadmap to explain how it plans to improve these figures,” notes the Jiji Tsushin news agency .
