Japanese retail giant Seven & i Holdings, operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, announced on Monday that it has received a preliminary takeover offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard. Following the news, shares in Seven & i surged by 22.7%, hitting their daily trading limit of 400 yen and raising the company’s market value to 5.6 trillion yen ($38 billion). Couche-Tard, a Canadian retail group, is valued at approximately $58 billion.
Seven & i has formed a special committee to review the proposal, though no decisions have been made yet by the committee or the board of directors. A source close to the matter stated that the discussions are still in the “very early stage.” If successful, this acquisition would mark the largest-ever buyout of a Japanese company by a foreign firm. In 2020, Seven & i and Couche-Tard were rival bidders for the U.S. gas station chain Speedway, which Seven & i acquired for $21 billion. The Japanese company has faced pressure from activist investors to focus on its global convenience store business, led by its flagship 7-Eleven brand.