Holdings, the Japanese operator of the 7-Eleven Convenience Stores chain, has appointed its first foreign executive president and handed him the task of reformulating his business to avoid an purchase offer of $ 47 billion, about $ 269 billion.
After six-month tumultuous months, which started when the company received one from Canadian Circle-K Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), Seven & I announced on Thursday its broader corporate and leadership restructuring.
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The main external director, Stephen Dacus, will succeed Ryuichi Isaka as executive president on May 27, the company said.
Addressing journalists in Japanese and English, Dacus said the conversations will continue with Coupche-Tard, but that significant regulatory obstacles prevent companies from merging.
“What I think our shareholders wouldn’t like is that we passed more than two years in a limbo just to be rejected by the US courts,” he said.
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Seven & I, which has over 80,000 7-Eleven stores in 20 countries and regions, has also announced an agreement to sell its Superlojas unit to Bain Capital by 814.7 billion yen ($ 5.50 billion) and will reduce its participation in Seven Bank to less than 40%.
In addition, the retailer’s Japanese conglomerate said it will repurchase about 2 trillion yen in stocks by the 2030 fiscal year and seek the list of its US subsidiary of convenience stores by the second half of 2026.
Seven & I has been the target of investor criticism of its capital allocation for years and in August received the purchase of ACT, which was later increased to $ 47 billion.
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In response, a group led by the Ito family, founder of Seven & I, made his own purchase offer, while the company’s management said he could trace an independent path to restructuring.
Dacus told reporters that he identifies himself with 7-Eleven franchisees, as his father had been one of them, and that he worked on the midnight shift in the store when he was a teenager.
The new CEO, who previously held executive positions at Walmart and Fast Retailing, also led a special committee that examined the acquisition offers. The Ito family group failed to guarantee a $ 58 billion financing for its offer, which ended up making the business unfeasible at the end of last month.
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Some analysts think that Seven & I’s restructuring plan may not make it impossible to offer ACT by the company.
The divestments advertised leave Seven & I focused mainly on convenience stores in Japan and abroad, which is what Act really wants, Travis Lundy, an analyst at Smartkarma, said.
“As the initial public offering of actions will only occur in a while, this suggests that there is still time for ACT to make an agreement involving the entire company, assuming that they can reach a disinvestment package,” he said.
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Reign of Isaka criticized
Seven & I has transformed the humble 7-Eleven store into a popular gastronomic destination in Japan, serving fresh sandwiches, rice balls and rows of packaged lunch, changing the way millions of people feed.
Isaka has been in the 7-Eleven operator since 1980, becoming her president in 2016. But her term was criticized by foreign investors, including Valueact Capital, which tried to urge him in 2023 for following what she said was a failed strategy.
Isaka led the acquisition of $ 21 billion from Seven & I of Marathon Petroleum’s Speedway gas stations in 2020, surpassing the offer of ACT and considerably expanding the company’s presence in the US market.
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However, some analysts and investors said the company paid too much for US assets and at the same time remained low profit margin subsidiaries in Japan.
“They entered the global market before they have a solid base,” said independent retail analyst Akihito Nakai. “In retrospect, they missed the request.”
Isaka presented a recovery plan in October to virtually double sales to 30 trillion yen by 2030, expanding abroad and focusing on fresh food offers.
Dacus indicated that he will maintain food -centered strategy, saying that Seven & I was working with suppliers to take the products found in Japan to the shelves of stores in the USA.
“I think if we can bring the same food quality to our US stores, that would be a huge and sustainable source of growth,” he said.
If ACT is able to get control of Seven & I, it will be the largest foreign acquisition of a Japanese company.
Seven & I was classified as “essential” to Japan’s national security in September, although the Ministry of Finance said at the time that it would not create obstacles to an acquisition.
