Owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain gets takeover bid from Canada’s Couche-Tard

The owner of 7-Eleven convenience stores and other retail chains has received a buyout offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Japan’s Seven & i Holdings on Monday said that a special committee that made up of outside directors has been formed to review the bid, but released no other details.

Shares of Seven & i jumped 23% in Tokyo, the largest single day jump for the stock in the company’s history.

“This potential takeover bid is a huge deal. 7-Eleven is the biggest operator in the US convenience retail store space with a 14.5% share of the market in 2023,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “By comparison, Alimentation Couche-Tard’s banners had a 4.6% market share. So, combining the two would produce an entity that controls almost a fifth of the market.”

The company has been trying to streamline operations and last year sold the department store chain Sogo & Seibu Co. to a U.S. investment fund.

Seven & i said that its board, as well as the special committee, have not made any decision yet as to accepting or rejecting the offer, to enter into talks with Couche-Tard or to pursue alternative options.

The company will make it’s decision public, it said Monday.

Couche-Tard runs a number of convenience store chains under brand names like Couche-Tard, Circle K, and On the Run. It has more than 14,000 stores across Canada, Ireland, Mexico Russia, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the United States.

Saunders said that any buyout attempt would get attention from U.S. regulators.

“Because convenience stores form a part of a much wider food and groceries market, there not all that many competition concerns,” Saunders said. “However, the levels of concentration will almost certainly attract FTC scrutiny which, given the current negative sentiment around consolidation and competition in the food and essentials space, will not make this deal an easy one.”