Seven & i responded fairly to offer from Couche-Tard, says Suntory CEO Niinami

By David Dolan

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Seven & i responded fairly by saying a takeover offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard was too low, Suntory Holdings chief executive Takeshi Niinami said on Wednesday.

Niinami, 65, is one of Japan’s most influential executives, serving as chair of the Keizai Doyukai business lobby, and has served as an economic adviser to current and former prime ministers.

Couche-Tard’s $38.5 billion takeover bid for the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores has made Japanese executives nervous about potential foreign takeovers, Niinami said in a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker interview.

Corporate governance reforms and Japan’s emergence from deflation are forcing the nation’s companies to focus more on returns on equity, which is in turn making them more attractive as takeover targets, he said.

The weak yen has been an “amplifier” for change in corporate Japan, adding pressure on companies to create value, Niinami said.

Seven & i’s rejection of the bid on grounds that it was too low “demonstrates that Japan’s corporate governance has been advancing”, he added.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Niinami was chief executive of convenience store operator Lawson before becoming the first non-founding family member to head Suntory.

In 2014, he led a $16 billion takeover of U.S. spirits maker Beam and has driven expansions of century-old Suntory into India and China.