Tokyo — The founding family of Japan’s Seven & i Holdings is asking Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group to invest in a management buyout of the retailing giant, national broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday.
The founding family is in talks to take Seven & i private to fend off a $47bn takeover from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Charoen Pokphand is the latest candidate approached by the family to support its takeover effort, which values the convenience store conglomerate at about $58bn and would be the biggest management buyout in Japanese history.
The proposed investment by Charoen Pokphand would be in the order of hundreds of billions of yen and negotiations to determine the figure are ongoing, NHK said.
Seven & i declined to comment on the report. A representative for Charoen Pokphand said they do not comment on speculation.
The Thai retail and food group, which operates 12,000 7-Eleven stores in Thailand, follows Japanese trading house Itochu and US asset manager Apollo Global Management as potential partners the family has reportedly sounded out as sources of funding.
The move would keep Seven & i’s present management in place and relieve pressure to offload unprofitable assets, though some analysts have said it may be intended to induce a higher bid from Couche-Tard.
Seven & i has been under pressure from shareholders in recent years to divest its varied noncore assets, which span supermarkets, speciality stores and restaurant franchises.
In October it announced the establishment of a holding company set to house 31 of its subsidiaries and sources have said US private equity powerhouses KKR and Bain Capital each bid more than $5bn for the spin out.
Reuters
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