{"id":17194,"date":"2025-07-23T05:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17194\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T05:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:05:06","slug":"7-eleven-parent-fires-back-at-couche-tard-over-highly-misleading-statement-after-deal-talks-break-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17194\/","title":{"rendered":"7-Eleven parent fires back at Couche-Tard over \u2018highly misleading\u2019 statement after deal talks break off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Antitrust concerns in the United States were among the most significant hurdles a potential deal faced.Ted Shaffrey\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Seven & i Holdings Co., the Japanese parent company of the 7-Eleven chain, has issued a fiery public letter accusing Canada\u2019s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. ATD-T<\/a> of distorting facts after deal talks between the two companies broke off. <\/p>\n

Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle K chain, tried for nearly a year to buy 7-Eleven for roughly US$46-billion, but walked away last week. Couche-Tard announced it was pulling the bid<\/a> in its own blistering public letter accusing the Japanese company of deception and delay.<\/p>\n

In its responding letter Tuesday, 7&i says Couche-Tard\u2019s statement was \u201chighly misleading\u201d and argued the Japanese company \u201cconsistently engaged in good faith.\u201d <\/p>\n

It also claimed Couche-Tard failed to take antitrust concerns seriously and demonstrated \u201can unfortunate lack of knowledge of the Japanese market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed that [Couche-Tard] has decided to walk away from these discussions,\u201d the 7&i statement said. \u201cWe are further disappointed that they have done so in a way that completely mischaracterizes both our engagement and the significant hurdles this transaction faced that they were not committed to resolving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alimentation Couche-Tard looking for other targets after pulling Seven & i bid<\/a><\/p>\n

Antitrust concerns in the United States were among the most significant hurdles a potential deal faced. Combining Circle K and 7-Eleven locations in the U.S. would have resulted in roughly 20,000 stores owned by the same company. Casey\u2019s General Stores Inc., which has 2,600 stores, would come in a distant second.<\/p>\n

Analysts have estimated Couche-Tard would have needed to sell as many as 2,000 locations in the United States to satisfy U.S. regulatory concerns with the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cACT never deviated from the claim that they had a \u2018clear path\u2019 forward on antitrust approval,\u201d 7&i said. \u201cBut that does not make it true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission requested several calls with 7&i about the potential transaction, \u201ctwo of which included numerous state Attorneys General, a highly unusual circumstance,\u201d the Japanese company said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe critical question was whether ACT could identify a viable buyer who would meet with the FTC\u2019s approval,\u201d 7&i said. \u201cThey could not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: Couche-Tard shows institutional investors will back big dreams<\/a><\/p>\n

Couche-Tard, which first approached 7&i<\/a> about a potential transaction in August, 2024, declined to comment on the Japanese company\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n

It took specific issue with the Canadian company\u2019s claim that one of its meetings with executives in Tokyo was brief and \u201ctightly scripted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo suggest that our management presentations were scripted is to misunderstand Japanese culture,\u201d 7&i said. \u201cSometimes being different isn\u2019t wrong or an act of resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal would have been both the largest-ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company and the largest acquisition Couche-Tard has made since the company was founded in 1980. <\/p>\n

It also represented the first major test of recent reforms to Japanese foreign investment rules<\/a> designed to make it easier for cross-border transactions to occur. However, few anticipated the first offer to arrive under the new foreign takeover regime would be for one of the country\u2019s most beloved corporate entities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hedge funds sort out winners and losers as Couche-Tard\u2019s bid to buy 7-Eleven owner collapses<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan is by far 7-Eleven\u2019s largest market, with 21,756 locations in the country<\/a>, representing roughly one-quarter of all its stores globally. There are nearly 3,000 7-Eleven stores in Tokyo alone, with many Japanese locations doubling as emergency shelters in case of natural disasters.<\/p>\n

To address the cultural and business differences, Couche-Tard said it had a Japanese partner to educate the company about specifics of the Japanese market, but 7&i pushed back on this, saying Couche-Tard never shared that information with them. <\/p>\n

Couche-Tard was planning to borrow tens of billions of dollars<\/a> to finance the transaction had a deal ultimately been reached. On Tuesday, the 7-Eleven parent said Couche-Tard is facing \u201cfinancial and market challenges\u201d and that \u201cfinancing markets have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is no need to blame Seven & i for that reality,\u201d the Japanese company said. \u201cACT decided on its own it was easier to walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Antitrust concerns in the United States were among the most significant hurdles a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-17194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}