7-Eleven's parent company's stock price has skyrocketed! The Ito family makes a significant announcement: planning to privatize before February.

According to reports from Japanese media, the Ito family, the founding family of Seven & i Holdings Co., the parent company of 7-Eleven convenience stores and a retail giant in Japan, who are also the largest shareholders of Seven & i, are seeking to complete a transaction to privatize the company by the end of the fiscal year in February next year. Following this news, the company's stock price saw a rare large increase of over 11% on the Japanese stock market. Media reports citing sources familiar with the matter stated that a special purpose company jointly established by the founding family and others is developing a plan to acquire the entire company, and hopes to raise over 8 trillion yen (approximately $517 billion) in funding from major Japanese banks and American financial institutions. In comparison, as of mid-week trading, the overall market value of Seven & i Holdings is approximately $44 billion. Senior fund manager Naoki Fujiwara from Shinkin Asset Management stated that although the specific price for the privatization has not been determined, investors have a positive attitude towards the news because this latest media disclosure makes it seem more realistic that the management-led privatization acquisition will happen. "Due to the serious attitude of the founding family towards this matter, it is expected that the stock price may continue to rise." Sources revealed last week that Seven & i is considering privatizing itself through a management-led acquisition, with funding possibly coming from banks, Itochu Corp., and the founding family of the Ito family. According to sources, the value of this transaction could be around 9 trillion yen, significantly higher than Seven & i's current market value of approximately 6.85 trillion yen. Sources also mentioned that if the Circle K convenience store parent company, Alimentation Couche-Tard, becomes more aggressive in its acquisition of Seven & i than the previous offers and presents a satisfactory acquisition offer to the major shareholders and investors, then any transaction could be considered as an option for the acquisition prospects of Seven & i. Analyst Travis Lundy wrote in a report on Smartkarma that compared with the acquisition initiated by Alimentation Couche-Tard, the entire acquisition cycle of the privatization led by the Ito family can be considered as "significantly shorter", and this family does not have other potential threats to consumer behavior or face comprehensive operations that may be subject to antitrust threats. More importantly, as the founding family, the Ito family has a greater say in the overall direction of the company, while Couche-Tard, as a foreign company, could face significant challenges in antitrust regulation and cultural integration in an acquisition they initiate. 7-Eleven is the world's largest convenience store chain brand and a core asset of Seven & i. With over 85,000 chain convenience stores in more than 20 countries and regions worldwide, its vast store network holds a key position in the global retail market, and it has extremely strong retail convenience store market shares in Japan, the United States, and other regions in Asia. This is also the main logic behind the founding family of Seven & i Holdings and Alimentation Couche-Tard competing to acquire Seven & i. Financial data over the years show that 7-Eleven has long been the most important source of profits for Seven & i Holdings. Although Seven & i also operates other retail businesses (such as supermarkets, restaurants, etc.), investors generally believe that 7-Eleven is the most valuable asset of Seven & i, and if operated as an independent company and listed separately, the total market value of 7-Eleven after independence is likely to be higher.