The long-standing slogan of 7-Eleven in Japan for many years was chikakute benri, meaning "close and convenient.” It neatly sums up the chain’s value proposition: Sure, you pay a bit more to shop there, but the convenience more than makes up for it.
These days, though, it feels like a lot of time is being wasted at Seven & I Holdings, the parent company that’s the target of a takeover proposal from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Months of attempting to bring together a coalition of unlikely partners to keep the firm in Japanese hands through a management buyout — which involved the founding family, local banks, private equity and, most unusually, Itochu, the owner of rival chain FamilyMart — have come to nothing.
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