The owner holding of store giant 7-Eleven is set to replace its chief executive as the Japanese convenience store giant battles a $47-billion takeover bid by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), reports said Monday.
Last week, Seven & i Holdings said its founding family failed to put together a buyout to fend off ACT's offer, which would be the largest foreign acquisition of a Japanese firm.
The holding is finalizing a plan for its chief executive to step down, most likely to be replaced by its first foreign chief, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
Japan's top business daily, Nikkei and other media reported that Ryuichi Isaka, who also serves as president of Seven & i, would be replaced by outside director Stephen Hayes Dacus.
Dacus, who has also worked for Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing and the Japanese arm of U.S. retail giant Walmart, would also be Seven & i's first foreign CEO.
The reports said a formal decision would be made at a board meeting, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Dacus, an outside director since 2022, currently heads a special committee tasked with evaluating ACT's bid, which the Canadian firm has already sweetened.
Dacus and the committee are expected over the next few weeks to unveil strategic proposals to increase the company's value ahead of an annual shareholder meeting in May, the Financial Times reported.
The company will hold a board meeting on Thursday to make the final decision, one of the sources told Reuters.
Seven & i, however, said in a statement that media reports about its management did not come from the company and that nothing had been decided.
"There have been reports in some news media regarding the management of Seven & i," the company said in a statement.
"However, this information was not announced by the Company and no decision has been made by the Company at this time," it said.
Isaka has been with the 7-Eleven convenience store operator since 1980, becoming its president in 2016. But his reign has been criticized by foreign investors, including ValueAct Capital, which tried to oust him in 2023 for pursuing a "flawed strategy."
More recently, U.S.-based Artisan Partners has urged the company to consider a competitive bidding process for takeover proposals. The fund declined to comment on reports of management change at the company.
Isaka has said the company's management can turn things around, aiming to roughly double sales to 30 trillion yen ($199.51 billion) by 2030 by expanding overseas and focusing on fresh food offerings.
Seven & i shares plunged as much as 12% on Thursday on news that the company's founding Ito family had failed to put together financing for its alternative offer.
On Monday, they rose as much as 4.6% and closed up 2.37%.
With around 85,000 outlets, 7-Eleven is the world's biggest convenience store brand.
The franchise began in the U.S. but has been wholly owned by Seven & i since 2005.
ACT, which began with one store in Quebec in 1980, now runs nearly 17,000 convenience store outlets worldwide, including the Circle K chain. It said on Friday that it still hoped to achieve a "friendly agreement."
The company's founding Ito family began talks last year to take the convenience store owner private in what would have been the largest management buyout in history.
Seven & i said last week that the group had failed to secure financing for what was projected to be a $58 billion buyout. Couche-Tard reiterated that it was committed to reaching a mutually agreeable transaction with Seven & i.
If Couche-Tard succeeds in winning control of Seven & i, it would be the biggest takeover of a Japanese company.
Seven & i was classified as "core" to Japan's national security in September, although the finance ministry said at the time it would not create hurdles for a buyout.
