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April 26, 2025
 

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ACQUISITIONS

Alimentation Couche-Tard founder and executive chairman Alain Bouchard (left) and President Alex Miller hold a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025
Alimentation Couche-Tard ramps up campaign to take over Seven & I
The Canadian convenience store giant and owner of Circle-K has sought to combat skepticism surrounding the deal, most recently with a news conference in Tokyo.
In the Japanese credit market, Change of Control covenants — which give bondholders certain rights to redeem the debt before maturity if the borrower has a significant change in ownership structure — have been very rarely seen, until now.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 10, 2025
Japan credit investors seek shield from M&A risks as deals boom
Change of Control clauses, which had been rare in Japan, are being increasingly sought by investors.
Couche-Tard has made clear that it wants to learn from Seven & I Holdings to improve its North America operation, and has ruled out going hostile in takeover talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025
Couche-Tard holds talks for sale of U.S. shops in Seven & I deal
The retailer last year proposed to purchase Seven & I Holdings for $18.19 per share, but so far hasn’t been able to enter negotiations with the firm.
Seven & I named Stephen Hayes Dacus as its first foreign chief executive on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2025
Seven & I announces measures to fend off Couche-Tard takeover
The announcements are the latest twist in a saga that began last year when Seven & I rebuffed a takeover offer from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Ryota Ishibashi, president of a subsidiary of Trial (far left), in a joint news conference with Seiyu
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2025
Discount store operator Trial to acquire Seiyu
Trial currently plans to retain Seiyu's company name and staff.
Nippon Steel is trying to build its business globally with U.S. Steel as a key component.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Mar 5, 2025
U.S. Steel seen as key to Nippon Steel's global strategy
To meet its target of raising its annual crude steel production capacity to over 100 million metric tons, the firm needs to forge ahead into promising foreign markets.
A Prada sign sits at an entrance to one of its stores in central Milan, Italy, in 2017. Prada and Capri could finalize a deal for Versace this month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2025
Versace owner Capri jumps on Prada moving closer to purchase
A purchase would run counter to a decadeslong trend of Italian fashion groups being taken over by foreign firms.
The Seven & I takeover saga is being closely watched as a test case of Japan’s openness to foreign capital, after recent governance reforms banned corporations from ignoring overtures that may raise value for shareholders.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2025
Seven & I shares fall amid report it may reject buyout offer
The company said it is still having constructive discussions with Couche-Tard after a report said it would reject the offer.
Takeover bids in Japan are expected to reach a record this year amid growing pressure on companies to boost shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 4, 2025
Japan small-cap fund tops rivals with stocks few analysts cover
The NicheJungle Japanese Orphan Companies SDG Fund has exited positions in 20 companies at a profit, with half of these firms taken over since the fund's 2022 launch.
Blackstone said it agreed to purchase 60% of Tokyo-based CMIC, a contract research organization, in a deal that values the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2025
Blackstone buys Japan drug trial firm, adding to private equity health deals
Blackstone has been increasingly active in Japan’s life science sector amid a wider buyout boom in the country.
The rapid collapse of the plan to take Seven & I private reflects how personal egos and domestic competitiveness ultimately outweighed the nationalistic desire to fend off Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose pursuit of the Japanese retailer emerged last August.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2025
Seven & I and Nissan deal fallout leaves Japan companies vulnerable
The collapse of the deals means the companies are potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.
Itochu dropping its Seven & I Holdings buyout plan would place Alimentation Couche-Tard’s offer back in the limelight.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 27, 2025
Itochu drops Seven & I buyout, putting Couche-Tard back in limelight
An individual with an understanding of the deal said Itochu and Seven & I lacked synergy to justify the deal.
Japan has already seen 24 takeover bids so far in 2025. If that pace is sustained, they may exceed 100 this year for the first time ever.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 27, 2025
Stock investors in Japan hunt for takeover targets with new fund
Japan has already seen 24 takeover bids so far in 2025.
A 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by Seven & I Holdings, in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2025
Seven & I buyout talks stall over management control
The founding Ito family and Itochu have yet to reach consensus on the composition of the board of the post-buyout entity, sources said.
Nippon Steel spent much of 2024 trying to gain approval for its planned takeover of U.S. Steel, facing regulatory and political hurdles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2025
Nippon Steel sticks with U.S. Steel takeover after investment call
The comments from Nippon Steel President Tadashi Imai on Tuesday are the first from an executive of the company since Trump said the steelmaker was considering an investment.
Bain Capital is believed to have offered more than ¥700 billion for the corporate value of York Holdings, which owns supermarket chain Ito-Yokado and other units.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 24, 2025
Bain seen as preferred bidder for Seven & I supermarket business
Seven & I is expected to enter into final negotiations with Bain Capital on the investment ratio and other matters, sources said.
The scramble to take Fuji Soft private is rooted in the value of the software company’s trove of human resources and real estate.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 20, 2025
KKR wins control of $4.4 billion Fuji Soft after Bain clash
KKR aims to acquire the remaining shares in the software company through a squeeze-out process.
With mergers and acquisitions reaching a record of more than $230 billion last year in Japan, and activists exerting greater influence on corporate Japan, investors from Sparx Asset Management to UBP Investments and Sigmoid Capital are becoming warier of nonearnings factors that may boost shares.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025
Activist boom in Japan is upending long-short stock strategies
Japan’s percentage of short-selling to total trades is at the lowest since July last year, in terms of the 60-day moving average.
Resonac Holdings CEO Hidehito Takahashi
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 19, 2025
Resonac explores deal structures for possible JSR takeover
A deal would be a key step in the chemicals maker’s ambition to corner the Japanese artificial intelligence semiconductor materials market.
Sapporo beer
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2025
Activist fund criticizes Sapporo after ‘acquisition failures’
The Singapore-based investment fund censured the management over "impairment losses on all of its overseas alcoholic beverage acquisitions.”
Naked man’s rampage in Saitama linked to one fatality and 10 injured
Police believe Daisuke Nishimura may have been involved in roughly 20 incidents in the 90 minutes leading up to his arrest, including a fatal hit-and-run and multiple assaults.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Japan brings forward deadline for electronic travel authorization system
Japan is planning to implement by March 2029 a new online screening system in which foreign visitors who don’t need a visa apply for a certification before entering the country.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

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