- Seven & i shares soared as much as 10.87% on Wednesday after NHK reported that the firm founding family was raising funds to take the company private by March 2025.
- Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard has also bid for the company that has been designated as "core" to Japan's national security.
Shares of 7-Eleven owner Seven & i soared nearly 11% on Wednesday after a report said the company's founding family was raising more than $50 billion to take the company private within this fiscal year.
According to a report by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the founding family will raise over 8 trillion yen ($51.66 billion) from "three Japanese megabanks and major American financial institutions," according to a Google translation of the report in Japanese.
The funds will be used by a special-purpose company to carry out a tender offer for Seven & i shares, with the goal to complete the plan by March 2025.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Should this acquisition go through, it will be the largest buyout of a Japanese company to date, NHK said.
Seven and i said "no decision has been made regarding a proposed deal with Junro Ito, Ito Kogyo, ACT [Alimentation Couche-Tard] or other third parties at this time," Reuters reported.
Junro Ito is Seven & i's vice president and the son of late Masatoshi Ito, founder of Seven & i. Ito-Kogyo is a company affiliated with the vice president, and is Seven and i's second-largest stakeholder with an 8.2% stake.
Money Report
Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard initially made an offer of $14.86 per share to take over Seven & i in August. The offer was rejected, with Seven & i saying it "grossly undervalues" the company
ACT then reportedly raised its offer in October by over 22% to $18.19 per share, valuing Seven & i at 7 trillion Japanese yen, or about $47 billion. Seven & i said in a statement last month that it "has maintained, and intends to continue to maintain, the confidentiality of its current discussions with ACT at this time."
In September, Seven & i was designated as "core" to national security in Japan, although the company said the designation was not related to the ACT takeover bid, according to a Reuters report.
A foreign investor must file for a national security review with the Japanese government if it intends to acquire a stake of 1% or more in a "core" Japanese firm.
