(Reuters) – Artisan Partners, a U.S.-based investor in Seven & i Holdings, on Sunday opposed the Japanese retailer’s CEO succession plan and urged the company to reconsider a takeover offer, according to a letter to the board.
Last week, the 7-Eleven convenience store operator named Stephen Dacus as CEO to lead its recovery and respond to a $47 billion takeover offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.
In the letter, Artisan Partners opposed Dacus’s selection and urged Seven & i to engage with Couche-Tard about its buyout proposal to maximize shareholder value.
Couche-Tard did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Seven & i wasn’t immediately available for comment outside business hours.
The special committee and Dacus rejected Couche-Tard’s offer of $18.19 per share, which at the time was a premium of almost one-third from the current share price. However, the company’s shares closed at $14.18 on Friday in Tokyo, about 22% below Couche-Tard’s latest offer.
The activist investor said it will vote against Dacus at the company’s upcoming annual general meeting, as well as against other members of the nomination committee.
Artisan Partners said it would also vote against Seven & I Vice President Junro Ito at the annual general meeting, citing his inability to secure financing for a $58 billion management buyout last month.
The Ito family began talks to take the convenience store owner private in what would have been the largest management buyout in history if successful after Seven & i received the Couche-Tard bid last year.
Artisan is among Seven & i’s foreign investors that have urged the company to focus on its core convenience store business.
(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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