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Seven & i Confirms Management Buyout Group Couldn’t Secure Funds

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(Bloomberg) -- The consortium proposing a management buyout of Seven & i Holdings Co. “has been unable to secure the financing required to submit a definitive proposal” to acquire the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, the company said Thursday.

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Bloomberg News reported this week that the founding Ito family and Itochu Corp. failed to reach consensus on the composition of the board of the post-buyout entity, citing people with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The Nikkei newspaper also reported that Itochu was set to pull out of the deal.

The management buyout, initially pegged at ¥9 trillion ($60 billion), was competing with a proposal by Circle-K operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., which has proposed to take over the Japanese retailer at a valuation closer to $47 billion.

“7&i remains committed to exploring all opportunities to unlock value for shareholders and continues to assess a full range of strategic alternatives, including the proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard,” the company said in the statement.

The Ito family and Itochu-led buyout proposal emerged in November to fend off Couche-Tard and keep Seven & i in Japanese hands. The heirs of the founder were set to contribute around ¥500 billion while trading house Itochu would put up more than ¥1 trillion, with the rest of funding coming from other strategic investors and financing from Japan’s top banks, people familiar with the plans had said.

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