7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard

TOKYO - The Japanese owner of 7-Eleven said on Wednesday it had received a "revised" takeover offer from Canadian rival Alimentation Couche-Tard after rejecting an initial bid worth around $40 billion.

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 Holdings did not give a figure for the revised offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) but Bloomberg News and other media outlets reported that it totalled around seven trillion yen ($47 billion).

The takeover, if realised, would be the biggest foreign buyout of a Japanese firm.

"As requested by ACT, the Company has maintained, and intends to continue to maintain, the confidentiality of its current discussions with ACT," Seven & i, Japan's biggest retailer, said in a statement.

Couche-Tard did not respond to requests for comment on the reported offer.

Seven & i announces its quarterly earnings on Thursday, with the CEO scheduled to address the media.

The group's shares closed up 4.7 percent on Wednesday, having surged nearly 12 percent in the morning following reports that ACT -- which owns Circle K -- had hiked its offer by almost 20 percent.

The reports said the new offer was sent to Seven & i on September 19 but said no substantive negotiations had taken place since then.

The upgraded bid shows Couche-Tard is "serious" about the acquisition, said Yan Cimon, professor of strategy at Laval University in Quebec.

Seven & i rejected ACT's first offer last month, saying the $40-billion proposal "grossly" undervalued its business and could face regulatory hurdles.

7-Eleven began in the United States, but the franchise has been wholly owned by Seven & i since 2005.

The stores are a beloved institution in Japan, selling everything from concert tickets to pet food and fresh rice balls.

Couche-Tard, which began with one store in the city of Laval in 1980, now runs nearly 17,000 convenience store outlets worldwide.

By purchasing 7-Eleven, it is seeking to become "truly global", said Kai Li, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Corporate Governance at UBC Sauder School of Business.

"Couche-Tard has done well with Circle K acquisitions, expanding its footprint in the United States," she told AFP.

If successful, the Seven & i takeover would be Couche-Tard's largest ever acquisition.

Cimon told AFP Couche-Tard "has historically been a very disciplined company when making acquisitions", which have included dozens of takeovers over the last two decades.

Li cautioned that this deal "might raise antitrust concerns" given that the combined entity would have "more market power" and could drive smaller operators out of business.

Cimon agreed that unease about Couche-Tard's potential market dominance could complicate the deal and analysts have indicated a potential merger of 7-Eleven and Circle K would likely spark concern among US regulators.

In a letter released on September 6 rejecting the previous offer, Seven & i said Couche-Tard's proposed purchase did not "adequately acknowledge the multiple and significant challenges such a transaction would face from US competition law enforcement agencies." - AFP