LAVAL, Quebec -- Alimentation Couche-Tard chairman Alain Bouchard says he would consider selling the company, the second-largest convenience-store retailer in North America, if the company cannot retain its dual-class share structure.
The company founders established the company on the dual-class structure to prevent a hostile takeover. The dual class essentially retains a percentage--most recently 22.7%--under the four founders' control. Most of these shares are multiple-voting shares with 10 votes each, but they are subject to a sunset provision that is scheduled to end in 2021.
The founders are taking action to extend or even due away with that deadline so that they can hand the company down to family. However, they canceled one shareholder vote on the issue when it became clear they did not have the needed support. Their fate now lies in the hands of Quebec lawmakers, whom Bouchard and the other three founders have asked to lift the sunset provision.
“It’s investors in Toronto that are blocking” our effort to keep a grip on Couche-Tard, Bouchard told Montreal’s La Presse newspaper, according to a translated report in the Globe and Mail. “I’ve talked to governance people from Toronto. They’re standing high on their pedestal, and they’re lecturing us. I don’t have time to waste with those types of people. I’m a bit fatalist, but if this forces the sale of Couche-Tard, so be it.”
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