Convenience and petrol retailer 7-Eleven’s Australian arm has been sold to its Japanese parent company after a hard-fought auction run by Azure Capital and Ashurst, Street Talk can reveal.
7-Eleven posted $220 million EBITDA in for the 2022 financial year, per the sale flyer.
It is understood Japan’s Seven & I Holdings, which owns the 7-Eleven global licence and collects licence fees from the Australian business, will pay $1.71 billion to own the Australian business in full on Wednesday.
7-Eleven owns about 750 stores across the country and forecast $220 million EBITDA for the 2023 financial year.
Seven & I fought off competition from ASX-listed fuel distributor and refiner Ampol and US private equity firm Platinum Equity to win the auction.
7-Eleven’s shareholders, the Withers and Barlow families, will exit the convenience and petrol retailer after acquiring the Australian licence in 1977.
The Withers family had a $2.08 billion estimated net worth on this year’s Financial Review Rich List.
The Japanese group was offered an early look at the Australian 7-Eleven as part of its licensing agreement last year, as reported by this column.
However, at the time Seven & I turned down the deal and the Australian owners put it up for auction via Azure and Ashurst.
Seven & I, advised locally by Nomura Australia boss Andrew Macgonigal and Bank of America’s consumer head Kate Stone and law firm Baker McKenzie, joined the auction despite turning down the first look, and emerged as the winner this week.
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