Seven & I Holdings

On April 20, 2005, the supermarket chain Ito-Yokado announced the establishment of a holding company called Seven & i Holdings in September of the same year. This holding company was formed in collaboration with its subsidiary convenience store chain, Seven-Eleven Japan, and the restaurant chain, Denny's Japan. At the time, Ito-Yokado, which was facing declining performance, had a market capitalization that was approximately 70% of the rapidly growing Seven-Eleven, causing an imbalance in the parent-child relationship within the group. The purpose of this restructuring was to resolve this imbalance and prepare for hostile takeovers. At the time, Ito-Yokado held over 50% of the issued shares of both Seven-Eleven and Denny's. However, after the restructuring, all three companies became 100% subsidiaries of the holding company. This restructuring also included other entities like Aiwai Bank (later renamed Seven Bank) and York-Benimaru, which were brought under the umbrella of the holding company. The group as a whole aimed to collaborate on product development, procurement, and the consolidation of management functions.

In November 2005, Seven & i acquired the shares of 7-Eleven, Inc. through a public tender offer, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary via Seven-Eleven Japan.[2]

Seibu Department Store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo

On December 25, 2005, Seven & i solidified its plans to merge with Millennium Retailing, which owns the department stores Seibu and Sogo. On December 26, Seven & i officially announced its intention to bring Millennium Retailing under its umbrella and integrate their operations by June of the following year. The combined domestic sales of both groups would reach a scale of 5 trillion yen when simply added together, surpassing Japan's largest Aeon Group. Their global sales, including U.S.-based 7-Eleven, would exceed 7 trillion yen, ranking them around fifth place in the world. While Seven-Eleven Japan and the financial business were performing well, the supermarket industry was experiencing declining sales. The integration with Millennium Retailing aimed to achieve operational efficiency through the consolidation of management functions and other measures. Millennium Retailing had already completed the revitalization of its subsidiaries Seibu and Sogo and was planning to go public in the next two to three years. However, they chose the path of integration with Seven & i instead.[3]

On August 11, 2006, Seven & i purchased Lombard, Illinois-based White Hen.[4]

On June 11, 2012, Seven & i, through its 7-Eleven, Inc. subsidiary, acquired 23 convenience stores in the US from Strasburger Enterprises, Inc.[5]

On December 4, 2013, Seven & i purchased 44.99% ownership of Barneys Japan Co., Ltd. from "a fund operated by Tokio Marine Capital". Barneys Japan "has a network of 10 stores in Japan, including five outlet stores" and, "for the year ending February 2013, Barneys Japan posted sales of ¥19.52 billion." After this transaction, Sumitomo Corporation will continue to retain a majority stake of 50.01% in Barneys Japan Co., Ltd.[6]

On January 29, 2014, Seven & i, through its subsidiary Seven & i Net Media, acquired 50.71% of Nissen Holdings, which is engaged in the mail order sale of clothing and daily necessities, the retail and wholesale of gift products through stores, catalogs, Internet and mobiles. Also, Nissen is involved in the life insurance, casualty insurance agency, credit card and money lending business.[7][8]

On April 6, 2017, Seven & i announced they would be acquiring 1110 convenience stores from American fuel company Sunoco for $3.3 billion, as well as that they would be supplied 2.2 billion gallons of fuel annually from Sunoco for 15 years.[9] Sunoco said they would be selling 200 more stores to Seven & i in Q4, 2017.[10]

The current President of Seven & i, Ryuichi Isaka, was appointed to that position on May 26, 2016, replacing Noritoshi Murata, who resigned his position along with Chief Executive and Chairman Toshifumi Suzuki in April 2016,[11] after activist investor Daniel Loeb, who owns an undisclosed stake in Seven & i through his investment company Third Point, raised concerns about rumours that Suzuki was grooming his son, Yasuhiro Suzuki, as his successor.[12]

In July 2019, 7-Eleven launched, then almost immediately suspended, a mobile payment service, 7pay. The service was hacked upon launch and attackers were able to spend money from affected customers' accounts.[13] The service was announced to be entirely cancelled following a review of the infrastructure it ran on.

On August 2, 2020, Seven & i announced they were purchasing convenience store competitor Speedway LLC from Marathon Petroleum for $21 billion. The deal had closed on May 14, 2021.[14][15][16]

In April 2023, Barneys Japan was sold to Laox Holdings.[17]

On January 26, 2021, the U.S. investment fund ValueAct Capital, which owns approximately 4.4% of the shares, demanded that Seven & i, a company in which they hold an ownership stake, focus on its convenience store business, which accounts for a significant portion of Seven & i's operating profit.[18]

On November 11, 2022, Seven & i announced the sale of Sogo and Seibu (formerly Millennium Retailing) to the U.S. investment fund Fortress Investment Group. On September 1, 2023, they formally confirmed the sale to the investment fund. The sale price of Sogo and Seibu was reduced from the initially planned 250 billion yen to 220 billion yen. Seven & i relinquished 916 billion yen worth of debt out of the 1,659 billion yen it held against Sogo and Seibu to alleviate the financial burden on Sogo and Seibu. The company announced that the final transfer price would be 85 million yen by adjusting for the net debt and working capital of Sogo & Seibu and its subsidiaries.[19][20] In response to this sale, the Sogo and Seibu labor union conducted a strike on August 31.[21]

• 7-Eleven Japan (based in Japan)
  • SEJ Finance and SEJ Service holding companies (based in the United States)
    • 7-Eleven (based in the United States and Australia)
      • Stripes Convenience Stores
      • Speedway - acquired in 2021
• Ito-Yokado - supermarket chain
• Seven Bank (46.4%, TYO: 8410) - online banking & operating ATMs at Seven & i Group stores
• Sogo & Seibu - sold to Fortress Investment Group in 2023
• Loft (75.2%) - retail stores specializing in stationery, household goods, kitchenware, cosmetics, and specialty items
• Seven & i Food Systems - operating Denny's restaurants in Japan; the company has held an exclusive trademark right of using "Denny's" (name, logo, etc.) in Japan since 1984 and operates independently of Denny's Corporation (without any licensing or franchise agreements)
• Seven & i Net Media[22]
  • Nissen Holdings [23][24] - catalog, online retailing, real store sales
• Tower Records Japan (45%)

Seven & i has been led by a president & CEO since the founding of the group in 2005. The current president is Ryuichi Isaka, having been appointed in May 2016 after weeks of boardroom drama with his predecessor, Toshifumi Suzuki.[25]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seven & i Holdings.

• Seven & i Holdings Annual Report 2011 PDF
• Seven & i Holdings Corporate Outline 2011 PDF
• Seven & i Holdings Integrated Reports / Annual Reports
• Seven & i Major Subsidiaries and Affiliates

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