M&A 2024: Big Dramas and Big Deals That Beg ‘What’s Next’?

The biggest mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) news of 2024 won’t actually happen until some time in 2025. Whether Circle K brand owner Alimentation Couche-Tard, with the second largest number of convenience stores in the United States, succeeds or fails in acquiring 7-Eleven parent Seven & i, with the largest number of convenience stores in the United States, the attempt will still rank among the biggest c-store industry news ever.

That drama played out throughout much of 2024, so even the potential for a deal lands it on that calendar as the major M&A event of 2024. But click through to take another look at that still-in-motion deal and the other big M&A news that characterized 2024 and that will have a profound effect on 2025 …

In August 2024, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. submitted a “friendly,” proposal, $14.86 per share or approximately $39 billion, to acquire Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. Tokyo-based Seven & i has rejected the proposal twice, saying it “undervalues” the company.

Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard in October then raised its offer to $18.19 per share or approximately $47.2 billion. 

• 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2.

Seven & i has since announced a restructuring plan to spin off its noncore supermarket, food, specialty and other businesses and to divest 444 underperforming “non-core” c-stores in North America to focus more on convenience.

The company is also considering a management buyout with funding from banks, Itochu Corp. and the founding Ito family in a deal that could be worth more than $58 billion. Seven & i confirmed the proposal from Junro Ito, Seven & i’s vice president and a company director, and Ito-Kogyo Co. Ltd., a private company affiliated with Ito. The proposed management buyout includes plans for an initial public offering (IPO) of the North American c-store business to ease financing concerns.

At the same time, 7-Eleven said it plans to build 500 “New Standard” c-stores by the end of 2027—125 in 2025—developed from what the company learned with its upscale “Evolution” stores.

While all this drama was going on, the companies didn’t stand still. Also in 2024, in April, Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven Inc. consummated its biggest deal of the year when it completed its acquisition of 204 Stripes c-stores and Laredo Taco Company restaurants in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma from Dallas-based Sunoco LP for approximately $1 billion.

Meanwhile, Couche-Tard forged its biggest 2024 deal in August when it agreed to acquire 270 GetGo Café + Markets c-stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana from supermarket retailer Giant Eagle Inc., Pittsburgh. The companies expect the transaction to close in 2025.

In July 2024, Casey’s General Stores Inc. agreed to acquire Fikes Wholesale Inc., owner of CEFCO Convenience Stores, in an all-cash transaction for $1.145 billion. The transaction, which included 198 retail locations and a dealer network, closed on Nov. 1.

The acquisition gave Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s a total store count to approximately 2,900 stores, with 148 additional locations in Texas, a highly strategic market for the retailer, as well as 50 stores in the Florida Panhandle, Mississippi and Alabama.

“We really like what we see [in the Florida Panhandle] from a competitive standpoint … and there's a lot of legacy industry assets down there,” Casey’s CEO Darren Rebelez said.

• Casey’s General Stores is No. 3 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. CEFCO is No. 37.

Casey’s had moved into Texas in November 2023 with the acquisition of W. Douglass Distributing’s 22 Lone Star Food Stores.

These deals open up new territories for the Greater Midwestern regional c-store retailer. Will Casey’s continue to expand in the South?

In August 2024, Brentwood, Tennessee-based Delek US Holdings Inc. entered into an agreement with Monterrey, Mexico-based Fomento Económico Mexicano for FEMSA to acquire Delek’s retail operations, consisting of 249 c-stores mainly in Texas, for $385 million. The deal closed in October.

• Delek US Holdings is No. 31 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.

FEMSA has long held aspirations to expand its OXXO c-store brand into the United States. The chain opened “proof-of-concept” c-stores in Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2014 and Laredo, Texas, in 2015 and said it planned to invest more than $850 million and open as many as 900 U.S. c-stores over the next 10 years.

FEMSA, which had a 20% stake in Dutch brewer Heineken, was prohibited by Texas law from owning retail outlets. FEMSA sold its stake in Heineken in 2023, clearing the way for it to own stores in the United States.

As for further U.S. expansion, since FEMSA operates in Mexico, Central America, South America and Europe, adding more stores in the United States would not be a stretch once it gets comfortable with the former Delek stores. A national rather than a regional strategy is possible, Constantino Spas, CEO of FEMSA Proximity Americas & Mobility (PAM) Division, told CSP.

Spas puts the total number of OXXO locations worldwide at approximately 24,600, including 23,000 in Mexico, 550 in Brazil, 550 in Colombia, 200 in Peru and 300 in Chile. It opens three stores per day on average in Mexico, he said. FEMSA also operates 1,200 Shell Select franchised stores in Brazil through a joint venture with Raizen, has 560 gas stations in Mexico under the OXXO Gas brand and operates some Pemex stations. FEMSA’s unit in Switzerland operates 180 stations under the Valora brand.

And the pace of growth globally is picking up “quite fast,” Spas said.

In April 2024, SQRL Holdings agreed to sell its convenience stores under SQRL Service Stations LLC to Gas Hub Investments LLC. SQRL had faced significant “liquidity issues” over the past several months, and the potential sale was “an effort to ameliorate this situation for all stakeholders.”

After the sale closed, Gas Hub Investments LLC, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tried to force SQRL into Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, claiming that SQRL owes it more than $3 million in unpaid rent. Gas Hub said it is seeking to force SQRL into bankruptcy due to “breach of membership unit purchase agreement,” according to court documents filed May 13 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

SQRL Service Stations filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August with more than $1.2 billion in debt,

In October, a Texas federal bankruptcy court granted the landlord of nearly 30 SQRL locations authorization to evict Gas Hub Investments from 18 of its c-stores in several states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Florida, after the landlord terminated their leases for nonpayment of rent. The landlord is also awaiting repossession on three more Florida properties and one Texas location.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Cameron Property Co. LLC, the landlord of the 18 properties, could “immediately pursue and exercise any and all contractual and legal rights and remedies” for the 18 stores, the court determined.

Court documents revealed that the 30 landlords of the SQRL stores wanted out of Chapter 11 to avoid an automatic stay that they said was blocking them from getting ownership of the SQRL locations for themselves as well. The landlords urged the Texas federal bankruptcy court to let them “obtain possession of the properties.”

A judge converted the Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in November after its trustee determined that there was “no realistic hope of selling this business as a going concern or of a successful reorganization.”

Industry observers expect the SQRL saga, one of the biggest developing stories of the year, to continue unfurling. Stay tuned.

Expect more changes to the convenience retailing landscape as a result of these 2024 deals that will shape the industry in 2025 and beyond:

January

Haslam Family Sells Remaining Interest in Pilot Travel Centers to Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett now owns 100% of travel center company

February

Shell to Grow U.S. Company-Owned Portfolio With Brewer Oil Retail Deal

Acquisition will include 45 convenience stores, gas stations, cardlocks

CrossAmerica Partners to Acquire 59 Convenience Stores From Applegreen for $16.9 Million

Seller says it is ‘focused on continuing to grow its presence in the U.S. travel plaza sector’

March

H&S Energy Acquires Convenience-Store, Fuels, Car Wash and Other Businesses of Andretti Petroleum Group

C-store retail and distribution company founded by racing icons includes nearly 170 locations and additional assets in California, Oregon and Washington

June

BreakTime Corner Market Acquiring 23 Loaf ‘N Jug C-Stores From EG America

Buyer will rebrand the locations, expand merchandise mix

September

Amber Energy on Track to Acquire CITGO

Company backed by activist investor Elliott Management selected by court-appointed special master to acquire iconic fuel brand

November

First Reserve Exploring Sale of Refuel C-Store Portfolio: Report

Rapidly growing convenience-store operator valued at more than $1.5 billion

Enmarket ‘Marks a Significant Milestone’ With Pending Acquisition by Nouria 

CEO and Founder Tony El-Nemr visited locations to welcome new convenience-store chain to the family company

BreakTime Corner Market Acquiring 39 Minit Mart C-Stores

Buyer to rebrand locations purchased from EG America to its ‘BrakeTime’ identity

December

Stewart’s Shops Completes Acquisition of Jolley Stores

Transaction includes S.B. Collins wholesale and Clarence Brown fuel oil businesses

Reliance Fuel Acquires The Store From Team Schierl

Buyer retaining all employees, will continue to offer loyalty program