Seven & i to ask Couche-Tard to reconsider 'inadequate' offer, source says
Seven & i to ask Couche-Tard to reconsider takeover bid price
Seven & i shares rose nearly 23% after news of Couche-Tard's proposal on Aug. 19
Foreign acquisitions of Japanese firms doubled in first half of the year
Adds Nikkei report on Couche-Tard's offer price in paragraph 4
By Rocky Swift and Ritsuko Shimizu
TOKYO, Sept 5 (Reuters) -Japanese retail giant Seven & i 3382.T will inform Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard ATD.TO that its takeover bid price is "inadequate", a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Seven & i will ask Couche-Tard to reconsider its takeover bid, also referring to competition law concerns mainly in the U.S., although the company does not reject the offer and will continue to talk with the suitor, the source said.
The company's board will send a letter to Couche-Tard as early as Friday, according to the Nikkei business daily, which reported the news first.
The Nikkei said Couche-Tard offered roughly 6 trillion yen ($41.81 billion) when it made its proposal in July.
News of Couche-Tard's approach for the global operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, which would be the largest foreign takeover of a Japanese company, pushed Seven & i shares up almost 23% on Aug. 19.
A Seven & i spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company would not comment on market rumours.
Seven & i, with a market valuation of about 5.6 trillion yen ($39 billion), previously said it formed a special committee to review the proposal, whose value or terms have not been disclosed.
Couche-Tard, which operates Circle-K convenience stores, is valued at about $52 billion.
While Seven & i is much larger than Couche-Tard in terms of sales, stores, and employees, its shares have underperformed for years, drawing complaints from investors including ValueAct Capital about the company's management and asset structure.
U.S. fund Artisan Partners, which holds about 0.85% of Seven & i's outstanding shares, said last week that Couche-Tard could enhance the Japanese company's corporate value and called on its management to respond to the offer by Sept. 19.
The bid for Seven & i is the latest example of the growing interest in Japanese companies by Western investors, who have been drawn by the country's push for better governance and a slide in the yen.
Foreign acquisitions of Japanese companies doubled to about 902.2 billion yen ($6.2 billion) in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, according to LSEG data.
($1 = 143.4900 yen)
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kantaro Komiya and Ritsuko Shimizu; Writing by Rocky Swift
Editing by David Goodman and Sharon Singleton
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
