Shareholders of 7-Eleven parent company, Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., on Tuesday approved a new board of directors and the selection of its first foreign-born CEO in Stephen Hayes Dacus, according to company filings.
The leadership changes come as the Tokyo-based convenience-retailing giant works to bolster its operations amid a nearly $50 billion takeover bid by Circle K owner, Alimentation Couche-Tard.
The takeover proposal was not up for a vote at the annual meeting.
Early this month, Couche-Tard and Seven & i signed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA), signaling an intensification of the takeover talks between the two companies. The NDA allows for the sharing of financial information between the retailers.
Vote counts on Seven & i’s leadership will reportedly be released later this week, with some media reports speculating that backing for Executive Chairman Junro Ito has declined. Ito is a member of the retailer’s founding family who failed in his efforts to mount a competing take-private offer for the chain.
7-Eleven’s parent company in March announced a “transformational” plan for the c-store retailer that would include a North American initial public offering for 7-Eleven by the second half of 2026, along with other changes designed to boost its convenience-store business. The company also said it would consider the divestiture of some 2,000 North American convenience stores to resolve potential antitrust issues.
Installing Dacus, then board chairman and lead independent outside director, as CEO was a key component of the turnaround plan.
Shareholders elected four new outside directors at the meeting, for a total of 12 board members, in addition to Dacus.
About 800 shareholders attended what was described as a “low-key” annual meeting, despite the many questions swirling about the company’s future, according to a Financial Post report.
“We will continue to provide information on progress to our shareholders while complying with the NDA,” Ryuichi Isaka, outgoing CEO, said at the meeting, according to the Post. “We will continue to compare and evaluate our plan with the external proposal, as we seek to maximize value for shareholders and all stakeholders.”
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