Shareholder pushes Seven & I to engage with Couche-Tard

A shareholder in Seven & I Holdings is pressuring the company to engage “more deeply” with Alimentation Couche-Tard over its $47.5 billion buyout approach. The operator of 7-Eleven stores responded by saying that it is doing so, and rebuffed Artisan Partners Asset Management’s assertions of conflicts of interest within the board.

Couche-Tard, the Canadian convenience store and gas station operator that owns the Circle K brand, proposed last year to purchase Seven & I for $18.19 per share, but hasn’t been able to enter negotiations with the Japanese company.

Seven & I has been fending off the approach by pursuing an overhaul of the company to unlock shareholder value. It announced last week sweeping changes, including board director Stephen Dacus taking over as chief executive officer, the sale of its superstore business for $5.4 billion, a share buyback program worth ¥2 trillion ($13.5 billion) and a listing of its U.S. business.