(March 5): Bain Capital is nearing a deal to buy Seven & i Holdings Co’s supermarket business, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The US-based private equity firm and Seven & i are hammering out details of a transaction that could be announced as soon as this week, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Seven & i is planning to hold a board meeting to vote on the deal on Thursday, the people said.

A potential deal may value York Holdings, an umbrella company for supermarkets, restaurants and other assets split from Seven & i’s convenience-stores business, at over ¥700 billion (US$4.7 billion or RM20.75 billion), one of the people said.

Talks are ongoing and could still fall apart, the people said. A representative of Bain declined to comment, while Seven & i didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment.

The sale heeds calls from investors over the years for the company to hive off the lower-margin supermarkets business and focus on its higher-margin convenience store business. The transaction is also the latest example of increased dealmaking activity in Japan.

Seven & i embarked on a broad restructuring of its business after Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc’s approach to buy out the company became public in August. Later in October, Seven & i outlined a plan to set up York Holdings.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee