Convenience store chain Circle K's parent company raised its bid to buy the owner of 7-Eleven about a month after an initial offer was rejected as too low.
Alimentation Couche-Tard offered to buy Japan-based Seven & I Holdings for $47 billion, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources. That’s a 21% increase over its earlier offer of $39 billion.
Seven & I issued a statement on Wednesday saying it “confirms that it received a revised confidential, private and nonbinding proposal” from Alimentation Couche-Tard, the Canada-based owner of the Circle K stores.
“As requested by [Couche-Tard], the Company has maintained and intends to continue to maintain the confidentiality of its current discussions with [Couche-Tard] at this time,” Seven & I said in the Wednesday statement. “The Company will continue to act in the best interest of its shareholders and other stakeholders."
Couche-Tard did not immediately respond to CoStar News' request to comment.
7-Eleven is already the world’s largest convenience store chain, and a combination with Couche-Tard would give it more heft. The unsolicited bid comes as many convenience store chains in the United States are aggressively expanding through new store openings or acquisitions, including Casey’s General Stores and Stewart’s Shops.
Couche-Tard operates about 650 locations of its namesake-branded convenience stores in Quebec and about 5,850 Circle K locations in the U.S. 7-Eleven has about 12,600 U.S. stores. A combination of the two companies would control about 20% of the U.S. convenience store market, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.
Couche-Tard in August said that it agreed to acquire the GetGo Café chain of convenience stores from Giant Eagle to expand in the Pittsburgh area.