Founding Family Fails in Bid to Buy Out 7-Eleven

The founding family of 7-Eleven’s Japanese parent company has failed to secure the money to buy it out, the company said Thursday, months after they launched a bid worth over $50 billion to fend off a foreign takeover.Seven & i Holdings, which sits atop a vast network of 85,000 convenience stores, primarily in Asia and the United States, said in a statement that it would assess alternatives, including the proposal from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard that the founding family had rejected.Junro Ito, an executive at Seven & i and the son of its founder, and Ito-Kogyo, the family’s asset management company, had begun their buyout attempt in November, after Couche-Tard launched its unsolicited takeover attempt.Couche-Tard, which runs more than 16,000 Couche-Tard and Circle K stores in North America and Europe, made an initial offer worth $38 billion in August, which Seven & i rejected in September, saying it “grossly undervalued” the company.Couche-Tard returned the next month with an offer worth $47 billion.If Couch-Tard succeeds, the deal would likely be the biggest foreign-led takeover of a Japanese company.Seven & i’s stock fell 11 percent on Thursday.The battle for control of 7-Eleven reflects the sweeping changes underway in corporate Japan, where the convenience store chain is considered a national treasure, making any foreign-led takeover a long shot.Japan has long been regarded as impenetrable for foreign companies seeking mergers and acquisitions, and analysts have questioned whether Couche-Tard can run 7-Eleven better than Seven & i.Officials in Japan have pushed Japanese companies for more than a decade to take steps — like giving proper consideration to takeover offers — to show they are open to moves that would financially benefit shareholders.

The aim was to leave behind the age of fortresslike companies that could reject foreign takeover bids without deliberation.Seven & i has said Couche-Tard’s proposed buyou...