(Tokyo) The fate of the Japanese convenience store giant Seven & i, owner of 7-Eleven stores and coveted by its Canadian rival Couche-Tard, is an issue of “economic security”, said a Japanese minister on Thursday, pointing out the crucial role of the distributor during disasters in the country.
Posted at 7:04 a.m.
Seven & i, which has 85,000 stores in around twenty countries, rejected a takeover proposal by Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) in September, deemed undervalued.
The Canadian group has since improved its offer, which would value the Japanese company at around $45 billion, but Seven & i assured to study another proposal from the family of its founder to buy back all the shares of the group and take it out of the company. Sotck exchange.
“Economic security is a new field [qu’il faut prendre en compte]. For example, the acquisition of 7-Eleven, I think, is closely linked to this,” Japanese Minister for Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa told reporters on Thursday.
“From the perspective of disaster prevention, […] “We need to get the cooperation of convenience store operators to send hot food” to volunteer workers and residents without housing and access to food in disaster-stricken areas, he observed.
A quarter of 7-Eleven stores are in Japan, where these omnipresent convenience stores sell takeaway meals as well as concert tickets and offer local services (ATMs, bill payment, etc.).
Above all, due to its tight network of stores and logistics support throughout the territory, 7-Eleven traditionally plays a key role during emergency situations, particularly natural disasters – earthquakes, landslides, typhoons – which regularly strike the archipelago.
It’s an “important question” being considered by the government’s disaster management agency: “If, for example, Seven & i becomes a wholly foreign-owned company with the pursuit of profitability as its first priority, will it offer really full cooperation in the event of a disaster? asked Mr. Akazawa.
A sign of the symbolic nature of convenience stores in the country, Tokyo classified Seven & i as an “essential” company in mid-September, which complicates the procedures for a possible takeover by a foreign entity.
Ryosei Akazawa’s comments come after US President Joe Biden blocked American steel giant US Steel by its Japanese rival Nippon Steel citing risks to US “national security”.
A decision which caused consternation and incomprehension in Japan, a close ally of Washington.
Seven & ia also reported on Thursday results at half mast in the third quarter of its staggered 2024-2025 financial year.
It saw its net profit collapse by 89% year-on-year, more than expected, to 11.4 billion yen (103.8 million Canadian dollars) over the three-month period ended at the end of November.
At the same time, its turnover stagnated at around 3,000 billion yen (35.27 billion Canadian dollars), penalized by inflation weighing down consumption in Japan and by weak sales in the United States, its flagship market. . Its operating profit plunged 24%.
These continuing difficulties, indicating that Seven & i is struggling to stem the decline in retail sales, could encourage some of the group’s investors to intensify their pressure for a sale to Couche-Tard.
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