Alimentation Couche-Tard and Seven & i Holdings have given potential buyers of about 2,000 c-stores the two retailers plan to divest until the end of March to express their interest, Couche-Tard CFO Filipe Da Silva told Bloomberg this week.
The Canadian retailer, which owns the Circle K banner, has also put a termination fee on the table that would be “painful” to absorb if the deal fails, Da Silva said. Da Silva added that the termination fee shows Couche-Tard is committed to trying to get the deal done.
Da Silva’s comments came about a day after Seven & i, parent of 7-Eleven, shared a timeline of this acquisition bid, highlighting Couche-Tard’s “resistance and delays on antitrust.” The Japanese company has repeatedly accused Couche-Tard of not taking U.S. antitrust concerns seriously enough.
The timeline also said Couche-Tard waited nearly two months after the initial proposal to address antitrust concerns, and that a proposed plan to address said concerns was insufficient given the scope of the $49 billion proposed deal.
Seven & i and Couche-Tard have more than 20,000 locations combined in the U.S. and Canada, and a divestment will likely need to include more than 2,000 locations.
“A deal that doesn’t close is not a deal, and it will destroy shareholder value,” Seven & i wrote in a statement on Monday.
The two companies began sending NDAs to interested third parties on March 4, and Da Silva noted that they have seen “really high” interest from private equity funds.
A former 7-Eleven foodservice director said in a recent interview that since mergers and acquisitions across all industries slowed over the past couple years, private equity companies have plenty of money for a deal like this.
