The $58 billion Slurpee acquisition

Sure, 7-Eleven is more than gas and Slurpees, but it’s still an outrageous bid.

11/14/24 3:34PM

Most of the bigger mergers and acquisitions stories that have made headlines over the last few years have been tech related, such as Nvidia attempting to acquire Arm Holdings, Big Tech companies “acquihiring” AI startups’ teams, or Adobe attempting to acquire Figma.

Occasionally, however, we get news of a potential blockbuster deal in the least-tech-focused of industries, like grocery stores, or, as of Wednesday… gas stations. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Junro Ito, a member of the founding family of Japan’s Seven & i Holdings, the parent organization of 7-Eleven, had made an eye-watering $58 billion bid to take the company private. The reason? They’re trying to outbid Couche-Tard, the Canadian convenience-store operator and owner of Circle K.

Interestingly, this story comes the same day that the Financial Times reported that Seven & i and Couche-Tard had “begun negotiations” over a $47 billion takeover bid for the 7-Eleven store owner. The Financial Times piece also noted that any bid from Ito would likely require “unprecedented levels of borrowing” from Japan’s banks to finance the deal.

A few things here:

First, $58 billion would be, by far, the largest management buyout in history if the deal closed. For context, Hilton Worldwide, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, is worth $62 billion. The largest management buyout on record was in 2006, when the founder of US hospital chain HCA worked with KKR and Bain Capital to acquire the company for $32.9 billion. The largest leveraged buyout of any kind was the $45 billion acquisition of Texas-based energy company TXU by KKR, TPG, and Goldman Sachs in 2007, and it ended in bankruptcy when the company failed to make interest payments during the recession. Even the lower bid from Couche-Tard would break records.

Second: $58 billion?! For 7-Eleven? I had no idea this company was that big, but Seven & i owns more than 85,000 stores across several brands, including 7-Eleven, Speedway, Japanese supermarket Ito-Yokado, Japanese ATM and online banking solution Seven Bank, Japan’s Denny’s franchises, and more. In total, the conglomerate generated $73.5 billion in 2023 revenue, adjusted for current exchange rates. Meanwhile, Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K, operates ~16,800 stores around the world, and its 2023 revenue was in line with its Japanese counterpart at $71.9 billion. So, to be fair, 7-Eleven is more than just a gas station.

My question, however, is whether or not the “white knight” bid from Junro Ito is real, or if the founding family is seeing just how high Couche-Tard is willing to go.

Alain Bouchard, Couche-Tard’s founder and executive chairman, has been gunning for 7-Eleven for decades. Bouchard first tried to acquire the company’s US business in 2005, but Seven & i declined. Nineteen years later, they could make history, creating a conglomerate with more than 100,000 stores worldwide (pending any regulator-mandated divestitures), and this move would give Couche-Tard a large footprint in Asia, where it only has 1% market share right now.

The question, however, is finding the right price.

There’s a scene in the final season of HBO’s “Succession” where Logan Roy is in a bidding war with his kids to acquire a competing media company. After he discovers that they beat him out by offering $10 billion, he calls them to say one of the best lines in TV history: “Congrats on saying the biggest number, you f---ing morons.”

I wouldn’t be totally surprised if there’s a similar game of chicken happening with these convenience-store chains right now. In August, Couche-Tard made an initial $38 billion offer for Seven & i, sending the latter’s stock price up 23% in response to the news. A month later, Seven & i rejected the offer, and Couche-Tard countered with a new $47 billion bid. While the Ito family could be willing to pay a $10 billion premium over Couche-Tard’s latest offer to retain control, they might also be willing to see if they can get the Canadian conglomerate to “say the biggest number” and pay a $20 billion premium over its initial bid.

Max Knoblauch36m

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the Regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower. Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones7h

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.