7-Eleven Parent Seeks to Stay Independent

Seven & i Holdings (Tokyo) has unveiled the following steps to help ward off a takeover proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard (Laval, Que.), owner of the Circle K convenience store chain:

• Named Stephen Dacus, 64, CEO. Dacus, a member of the company’s board and longtime retail executive from the United States, will become the company’s first foreign-born leader when he assumes that role in May.
• Give its U.S. c-stores more independence by splitting them into a separate listed stock company via an initial public offering (IPO) by no later than mid-2026. That unit operates more than 13,000 7-Eleven branches.
• Buy back more than $13 billion worth of its shares by fiscal year 2030 to increase their value.

Dacus, who chaired a special committee formed to oversee the review of ACT’s proposal, said the steps by the company “are crucial steps in simplifying our group structure and unlocking shareholder value. As there is no assurance that a third-party transaction will ever become actionable or be in the best interest of the group’s shareholders and other stakeholders, the special committee fully endorses these management initiatives.”

Couche Tard and its Circle K brand operate a total of about 16,700 stores. The company began its pursuit of Seven & i Holdings last August, and its most recent offer for the firm is valued at about $47 billion.

In its coverage of Seven & I’s latest moves to fend off that overture, The New York Times noted that Japan’s corporate landscape, which has resisted change for decades, is beginning to shift in the face of an influx of attention from foreign investors. “The reshuffling at Seven & i, whose convenience stores are so ubiquitous in Japan that they are considered part of the national infrastructure, is the latest example of that transformation,” the Times reported.