Seven & i Founders Seeking Capital from Thailand to Counter Buyout

The founding family of Seven & i is asking Thailand's Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group to invest in a management buyout of the Japanese retailing giant, NHK reported on Thursday. The founding family is in talks to take Seven & i private through a management buyout to fend off a $47 billion takeover from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard.

CP is the latest candidate approached by the family to support its takeover effort, which values the sprawling convenience store conglomerate at an estimated $58 billion and would be the largest management buyout in Japanese history should it go ahead.

The proposed CP investment would be in the order of hundreds of billions of yen and negotiations to determine the figure are ongoing, Japan's national broadcaster said.

The Thai retail and food group, which operates 12,000 7-Eleven stores in Thailand, follows Japanese trading house Itochu and U.S. asset manager Apollo Global Management as potential partners the family has reportedly sounded out as sources of funding.

Seven & i declined to comment on the report. A representative for CP Group said they do not comment on speculation.