It may come as surprise to some, but Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is one of the largest convenience store operators in the world. With more than 16,000 outlets across Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Japan, China and Indonesia, Couche-Tard has announced plans to buy U.S. retail rival CST Brands Inc. in a takeover deal worth $4.4 billion. It is Couche-Tard’s biggest acquisition.
Couche-Tard has agreed to pay $48.53 U.S. per share for a company employing 14,000 people across 2,000 locations in the American southwest. Said Couche-Tard CEO Brian Hannasch: “It gives us an entry into Texas, a market that we’ve been focused on penetrating for the last three or four years.”
The deal also adds 165 sites in Georgia and north Florida, “largely filling out a geographic void we have in the U.S. Southeast and strengthen Couche-Tard’s footprint in Arizona and Colorado,” Hannasch concluded.
Couche-Tard has been growing steadily since it was founded in 1980, a superb example of the global entrepreneurial brilliance of a Canadian business and a reminder of great investment opportunities in our own back yard – Bravo Couche-Tard!
