Apollo Global weighs $9.5 billion in Seven&i privatization bid – Bloomberg By Investing.com

Investing.com– Apollo Global Management (NYSE: ) is considering taking a majority stake in a bid by Seven&i’s Ito family to take over the privately held Japanese department store chain, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The US private equity giant is considering investing as much as 1.5 trillion yen ($9.5 billion) for a stake in the firm after it goes private, the Bloomberg report said.

Apollo could join the Ito family and Itochu Corp as key investors in Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO:). The Ito family is considering a commitment of about 500 billion yen and Itochu more than 1 trillion yen, Bloomberg said.

The current privatization proposal sees equity amounting to as much as 4 trillion yen, with the rest of the financing coming from banks.

Seven & i, which owns the famous chain of convenience stores 7-Eleven, has become the target of increasing acquisition interest in recent months, after Canada. Alimentation Couche Tard Inc (TSX: ) is offering about ¥7.5 trillion for the company. While Seven & i rejected the offer, it was followed by reports that the company’s founding Ito family was also considering taking the private company into a consortium.

Seven&i’s market capitalization stood at about 6.3 trillion yen on Friday. Its shares jumped more than 5% even as it posted a 24% year-over-year drop in its third-quarter earnings.