Acquisition · Retail
7-Eleven agrees to buy Speedway's 3,900 stores for $21 billion
- Buyer
- Seven & i Holdings (via 7-Eleven, Inc.) (Tokyo)
- Target
- Speedway (Marathon Petroleum's convenience store and fuel business), Enon, Ohio
- Value
- $21B
- Status
- Completed on May 14, 2021. 7-Eleven agreed with the FTC to sell 293 stores in 20 states; the FTC accepted the order in June 2021.
- Date
- 2020-08-02
Seven & i's US arm 7-Eleven, Inc. agreed to buy Marathon Petroleum's Speedway convenience stores for $21 billion in cash. The deal covers about 3,900 stores in 35 states, mostly in the Midwest and East Coast, and includes a 15-year deal for Marathon to supply about 7.7 billion gallons of fuel a year. 7-Eleven expected $475 million to $575 million a year in cost savings by the third year.
Why it matters
It was the largest acquisition ever by a Japanese retailer and one of the biggest Japanese purchases of a US company, making 7-Eleven by far the largest US convenience store chain with about 14,000 stores.
The deal
7-Eleven, Inc., the Texas-based US subsidiary of Seven & i Holdings, agreed on Sunday, August 2, 2020 to buy Speedway LLC from Marathon Petroleum for $21 billion in cash. Speedway ran about 3,900 convenience stores with gas stations in 35 states. Marathon expected about $16.5 billion of cash after tax. As part of the deal, Marathon agreed to supply 7-Eleven with about 7.7 billion gallons of fuel a year for 15 years.
Why Seven & i did it
Speedway's stores are concentrated in the Midwest and on the East Coast, where 7-Eleven was thinner. Combined, the chain reached about 14,000 US stores. 7-Eleven projected $475 million to $575 million of annual savings by the third year after closing, mainly from buying fuel and goods at larger scale. Seven & i had tried to buy Speedway in 2020 talks before, and the history of approaches stretched back several years.
Antitrust review
The deal was first expected to close in the first quarter of 2021 but took longer because of the Federal Trade Commission's review. 7-Eleven completed the purchase on May 14, 2021. It had agreed in April to sell 293 stores in 20 states to resolve competition concerns: 124 to Anabi Oil, 106 to CrossAmerica Partners and 63 to Jacksons Food Stores. The FTC accepted a proposed consent order on June 25, 2021. Two Democratic commissioners criticized the company for closing before the FTC finished its work.
What happened next
The Speedway deal made North America the center of Seven & i's earnings. It also drew investor pressure on Seven & i to focus on convenience stores, and in 2024 it became a target itself when Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard made a takeover approach.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
