Bigger than Musk's X, Seven & i's offer to rank among top buyout deals

By Jinshan Hong and Karthikeyan Sundaram 

An offer worth around ¥9 trillion ($58 billion) from the management of Seven & i Holdings Co. to take itself private exceeds the value of the biggest buyouts involving private equity or the management. 

A successful transaction would surpass what KKR & Co. and TPG Capital paid to take over Energy Future Holdings Corp., formerly known as TXU Corp, Bloomberg-compiled data shows. It will also be bigger than billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout of Twitter — a deal that isn’t counted as a leveraged buyout for lack of management or PE participation. 

  The proposal would be funded by Japan’s biggest banks, Itochu Corp. and the founding Ito family, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. It could be offered as an option for shareholders should Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. become more aggressive with its pursuit of Seven & i and make a tender offer, the people said. 

 

While the management offer marks a unified resistance to Couche-Tard’s approach, the deal may be hard to pull off given its size, and will likely not proceed if the Canada-based company backs off.