Couche-Tard walks away from bid to buy 7-Eleven parent company

The parent company of 7-Eleven says it remains committed to its stand-alone plan after Canadian company Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. backed away from its offer to buy its rival.

Japanese company Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. says it engaged in good faith and constructively with the Quebec-based company to explore the possibility of reaching a deal.

Couche-Tard has said that it walked away from its offer Wednesday due to what it called a “lack of constructive engagement.”

Had the deal gone ahead, it would have handed Couche-Tard a dominant position in the global convenience store game.

Couche-Tard spent nearly a year courting the Japanese company which also holds a broader portfolio of supermarkets, food producers and financial services companies.

Couche-Tard has close to 17,000 stores in 29 countries and territories around the world.