Shareholder Pushes Seven & i to Engage With Couche-Tard

Mathieu Dion

Sun, Mar 9, 2025, 10:34 AM 3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- A shareholder successful Japan’s Seven & one Holdings Co. is pressuring the institution to prosecute “more deeply” with Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. implicit its $47.5 cardinal buyout approach.

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“The Board has taken respective decisions that permission important unanswered questions,” Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio managers N. David Samra and Benjamin L. Herrick said successful a missive to Seven & i’s committee connected Sunday. The wealth manager owns stakes of astir 1% successful some the institution and Couche-Tard, according to information compiled by Bloomberg.

“Those questions revolve astir imaginable conflicts of involvement and nonaccomplishment to prosecute the way that offers the champion aboriginal for the institution and maximizes value,” they said. Seven & one couldn’t instantly beryllium reached for remark extracurricular regular concern hours.

Couche-Tard, the Canadian convenience store and state presumption relation that owns the Circle K brand, projected past twelvemonth to acquisition the genitor institution of 7-Eleven for $18.19 per share.

Seven & one has been fending disconnected the attack by pursuing an overhaul of the institution to unlock shareholder value. It announced past week sweeping changes, including committee manager Stephen Dacus taking implicit arsenic main enforcement officer, the merchantability of its superstore concern for $5.4 billion, a stock buyback programme worthy ¥2 trillion ($13.5 billion) and a listing of its US business.

Artisan Partners, which has for months been urging negotiations betwixt the 2 parties, said determination are “serious questions” astir Dacus’ relation arsenic president of the peculiar committee overseeing Couche-Tard’s bid, and arsenic helium served connected the information committee “while his ain relation astatine the institution was nether consideration.”

“Minimum” firm governance standards would person demanded that Dacus resign from some of these committees, the capitalist said.

“Shareholders tin person nary assurance that the peculiar committee has run, nor continues to run, a thorough valuation process,” said Artisan Partners, adding that the steadfast is apt to ballot against Dacus and different committee members astatine the adjacent yearly wide meeting, depending connected Seven & i’s answers.

The Japanese and Canadian retailers said successful abstracted statements past week that they were moving unneurotic connected a imaginable divestiture of US stores to flooded antitrust hurdles, if a takeover becomes the champion option.