TOKYO, Japan — Shares in the Japanese parent of 7-Eleven soared on Wednesday after a media report said its founding family wanted to take the firm private before the end of March as it looks to fend off a multibillion-dollar buyout offer.
Seven & i, owner of the world's biggest convenience store chain, earlier this year rejected an offer of nearly US$40 billion from Canadian rival Alimentation Couche-Tard.
ACT has since sweetened its offer, which if completed would be the biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese company, creating a convenience store behemoth with some 100,000 outlets.
Last week Seven & i said it was studying a counter-offer from its vice president Junro Ito, the founder's son, and his company Ito-Kogyo, which already has a stake of around eight percent.
Broadcaster NHK reported late Tuesday that they were seeking to raise more than eight trillion yen (US$50 billion) from banks and to complete the takeover this fiscal year, which ends on March 31.
Seven & i told AFP that no official announcement had been made. The firm's shares were up 8.4 percent by the break of trade in Tokyo, having earlier rocketed 10 percent.
The 7-Eleven franchise began in the United States, but it has been wholly owned by Seven & i since 2005.
Around a quarter of 7-Eleven stores are in Japan, where they are a cherished one-stop shop for everything from rice balls to concert tickets.
Couche-Tard, which began with one store in Canada's city of Laval in 1980, now runs nearly 17,000 convenience outlets worldwide.