Harris campaign reports spending nearly three times as much as Trump in August
New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens freed from captivity in Indonesia's Papua
Sri Lanka has more women voters than men but no female presidential candidates
AI is helping shape the 2024 presidential race. But not in the way experts feared
Japan's Icom: highly unlikely wireless devices that exploded in Lebanon are our products
The Midwest could offer fall’s most electric foliage but leaf peepers elsewhere won’t miss out
Phillies clinch 3rd straight playoff berth and close in on NL East title
Wojnarowski one of the first significant sports 'insiders' to step away from the spotlight
TOKYO (Reuters) -Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard is discussing how much it could raise the offer price to buy Japan's Seven & i Holdings, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with Couche-Tard's internal talks.
Couche-Tard earlier this week said it was willing to continue the buyout talks after Seven & i rejected its $38.5 billion offer.
Couche-Tard must offer a significantly higher price than the initial proposal to get Seven & i to enter negotiations, but whether the suitor will submit another proposal to Seven & i remains uncertain, Bloomberg reported citing the sources.
Seven & i has tapped Nomura to advise its board in preparation for a potential takeover battle with Couche-Tard, the Financial Times separately reported on Thursday.
Seven & i declined to comment on the raised offer price and advisor appointment. Nomura declined to comment on its reported appointment.
Shares in Seven & i had risen more than 4% as at the end of morning trade on Thursday to 2,204 yen ($15.44), higher than the $14.86 per share Couche-Tard proposed.
Couche-Tard has said it was confident of arranging financing for the deal, which would be the largest-ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company.
Seven & i last week said the deal was not in the best interests of its shareholders and could face antitrust challenges in the U.S., where the combined company would be the biggest convenience store operator by a considerable margin.
($1 = 142.7200 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Anton Bridge; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Christopher Cushing)
