Couche-Tard drops its $50bn pursuit of 7-Eleven

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Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard has withdrawn its record-breaking $50bn proposal to acquire Japan’s Seven & i Holdings, bringing an end to its year-long campaign to pull the 7-Eleven owner to the negotiating table on friendly terms.

Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K, on Thursday said a lack of “constructive engagement” by Seven & i led to its decision to withdraw the unsolicited takeover proposal that would have resulted in the largest deal for a Japanese company by a foreign group.

“There has been no sincere or constructive engagement from 7&i that would facilitate the advancement of any proposal,” it said in a letter to Seven & i’s board. “You have engaged in a calculated campaign of obfuscation and delay, to the great detriment of 7&i and its shareholders.”

The two sides had agreed to work on a solution to concerns about scrutiny from competition authorities that would have involved selling 2,000 stores in the US where their store footprint significantly overlapped.

The Canadian group’s approach triggered the Japanese retail giant to overhaul management and vastly transform its portfolio by selling a stake in domestic general merchandise stores and drawing up plans to list its US arm.