Ito Family's Seven & i Gets Back To Basics To Ward Off $47 Billion Takeover Bid From Circle K Owner
This story is part of Forbes' coverage of Japan's Richest 2025. See the full list here.
Facing activist investors and an unsolicited bid of nearly $50 billion from Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), Seven & i Holdings, owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, announced measures in March to improve profitability.
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They include a ¥2 trillion ($14 billion) share buyback through 2030; plans to list its U.S. 7-Eleven stores in 2026; and the sale of non-core retail assets to U.S. PE firm Bain Capital for ¥815 billion. Ito family heir, Junro, son of late founder Masatoshi, was promoted to chairman from vice president and retail veteran Stephen Dacus was brought on board as the company's first non-Japanese CEO.
The $69 billion in revenue ACT, which has about 17,000 Circle K and other stores globally, was reported to have initially made a $39 billion bid for Seven & i last August before revising it upward in January.
Seven & i, which had roughly 87,000 outlets worldwide and revenue of nearly ¥12 trillion in the year through February, rejected the improved offer but in May agreed to open its books to ACT. Any deal would be one of the largest foreign takeovers of a Japanese company.
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