One of Canada’s most valuable retailers is doubling down on its bid to become the king of convenience.
What happened: Québec’s Alimentation Couche-Tard sweetened its bid to buy the world’s largest convenience store operator, 7-Eleven owner Seven & i, to US$47 billion — boosting its prior offer from August by 22%.
- The new bid comes as one of Couche-Tard’s largest shareholders, Québec pension manager CDPQ, says the fund will likely help finance the takeover attempt.
Catch-up: Since Couche-Tard’s initial offer, Seven & i has been shopping parts of its supermarket and banking units to focus on its core convenience store business, a step that investors have pressured the company to take.
- Japan also recently designated Seven & i as a “core” business, a move that some say was designed to make it harder for a foreign buyout to win regulatory approval.
Why it matters: Seven & i scoffed at Couche-Tard’s first offer, but with sales continuing to slump and an extra ~$8.5 billion tacked onto the bid, the company is likely to face pressure from investors to entertain a deal — especially if today’s earnings call disappoints.—LA