The owner of convenience store giant 7-Eleven has received a takeover offer from Canadian competitor Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), which operates the Circle K chain.
Tokyo-based Seven & i Holdings said it had set up a special committee to decide whether to accept or reject the offer.
Seven & i shares rose more than 20% following the news.
This gave the Japanese company a market valuation of around 5.6 trillion yen (38.5 billion US dollars or 29.7 billion pounds).
In a statement, Seven & i said the company had “received a confidential, non-binding and preliminary offer from ACT to acquire all of its outstanding shares.”
“The Special Committee intends to examine the proposal promptly, carefully and comprehensively,” it added.
If a deal goes through, it could face objections from North American antitrust authorities, as 7-Eleven has over 13,000 stores in the US and Canada, while Couche-Tard has over 9,000.
In recent years, activist investors have put pressure on Seven & i to sell some of its assets to refocus the company on the 7-Eleven brand and its global convenience store business.
7-Eleven was first brought to Japan from the United States in 1974 by retail magnate Masatoshi Ito.
Ito, who died in 2023 at the age of 98, is considered the creator of the convenience store chain and turned it into a global business empire.
Today, 7-Eleven has 85,000 stores in 20 countries and regions worldwide and has a strong presence in Asia.
Based in Quebec, ACT is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and operates approximately 17,000 stores in more than 30 countries and territories in North America, Europe and Asia under the Circle K and Couche-Tard brands.
The market capitalization is around 80 billion Canadian dollars (58.2 billion US dollars or 45 billion pounds).
