Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD) is reported to be in talks concerning a multibillion-dollar
merger with British retailer EG Group.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper is reporting that talks are ongoing between Couche-Tarde,
which owns the Circle K convenience store chain, and privately held British retailer EG Group,
which runs gas stations and fast food outlets primarily in Europe.
A potential merger would value publicly traded Couche-Tard at $16 billion U.S., including debt.
That's about $1 billion U.S. more than the Quebec-based company was valued at last
September.
The combined company would be headquartered at Couche-Tard's base in Laval, Quebec and
have over $70 billion U.S. in annual revenue and 21,000 fast-food outlets, gas stations and
grocery stores in more than 30 countries around the world, including the U.S.
Synergies could vary by geographic region. They would be significant in the U.S. where
Couche-Tard has about 7,150 sites and EG Group has some 1,700 locations. But savings
would be limited in Europe because of a lack of overlap with Couche-Tard's presence.
While a transaction would face scrutiny from U.S. regulators, antitrust concerns are not
expected to be an issue because EG's 762 Kroger convenience stores are spread across 19
states in America, most of which are outside Couche-Tard’s jurisdictions in America.
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