Can Frosters and Slurpees coexist? What about Polar Pops and Big Gulps? We may soon find out. The owner of Circle K wants to buy the owner of 7-Eleven. The former sent a preliminary offer described as “friendly” and “nonbinding.”
Though Alimentation Couche-Tard, the parent company of Circle K, based in Canada, and Seven and i, the parent company of 7-Eleven, based in Japan, are the two biggest convenience store chains in the U.S.
Couche-Tard operates more than 16,000 convenience stores worldwide, with more than 7,000 Circle K stores in the U.S. 7-Eleven under Seven and i has more than 85,000 stores, with over 13,000 being 7-Eleven stores in the U.S.
Following the news, shares of Seven and i rose 23% in Tokyo, valuing the company at $38 billion. Couche-Tard is valued at around $58 billion, and is looking to acquire all of Seven and i’s outstanding shares.
If the deal goes through, it could become the largest foreign-led acquisition of a Japanese company. It is still very early, though Seven and i did confirm on Monday, Aug. 19, that it received a proposal. The company issued a statement, saying that it intends to “conduct a prompt, careful and comprehensive review of the proposal.” There is so far no indication of whether it intends to accept or reject the proposal.
How big of a deal is this to the convenience industry? Jonathan Maze, the editor-in-chief at the trade publication Restaurant Business Magazine posted to X, “This proposal is literally the same thing as if McDonald’s just proposed to buy Burger King. Check that. It’s as if Starbucks just proposed to take over McDonald’s.”
The value of the offer is unknown at this time. It’s unknown when a decision may be made, but both parties, like most convenience stores, will be working on it 24/7.
