Asian group ousted for 7-Eleven as Seven & I Holdings pays $1.7bn

The Barlow and Withers families have sold Seven-11 for $1.7bn. Picture: Bo Amstrup, Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

An Asian group working with adviser PwC was understood to be among the final contenders in the race for the Australian 7-Eleven convenience retail business, purchased by Japan’s Seven & I Holdings for $1.71bn.

Seven & I Holdings, which has the licence for 7-Eleven in Japan, had been looking at the business early on and had pre-emptive rights for a purchase, but a sale process was launched through Azure Capital to drum up competitive tension and force the suitor to pay up for the assets.

Among the groups in the second round of the process were private equity firm Platinum Equity and Ampol, as revealed by DataRoom, and an Asian group advised by PwC, which was not believed to be private equity.

Nomura advised Seven and I Holdings along with Bank Of America.

7-Eleven generates annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $220m.

Owned by the Withers and Barlow families, its 750 stores are located across Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, processing 250 million transactions each year.

The business operates everywhere in Australia except Tasmania, the Northern Territory and South Australia, which creates growth opportunities for the buyer.

It has a licence to operate and franchise 7-Eleven stores in Australia from the US-based 7-Eleven.