FamilyMart, Japan's third-largest convenience store chain, is reportedly set to join in the bid by Itochu Corp, its largest shareholder, to acquire the am/pm Japan chain. Reports in the Japanese media said the two companies plan to spend 10bn yen ($111m) to buy out the outstanding am/pm shares from its parent, Rex Holdings.

am/pm, Japan’s seventh-largest c-store chain, has been the focus of proposed and failed acquisition plans through most of this year. Earlier on, no.2 chain Lawson Inc ended its plans to acquire the chain over naming issues with Rex Holdings.

If the proposed Itochu/FamilyMart deal does go through, the chain will end up with a total of 8,700 outlets, taking it closer to Lawson's 9,600 stores. The deal will also help it to cut procurement costs due to expanded scale of operations.

NamNews - Thursday 12th November 2009

 

See column on the right for related news items
or search our NamNews Archive containing over 9 years of industry news (Subscriber-only)