Quick Take: Seven & i walks away from Zabka stake

Research evidence excerpt

Quick Take: Seven & i walks away from Zabka stake

27 July 2026

Japan Consumer

Seven & i announced on July 25 that it will not proceed with the investment in Żabka Yugo Shima

+81 3 6777 6994 it had been considering, (news report here) citing failure to agree on terms. The company

yugo.shima@bernsteinsg.com had been in talks to acquire a double-digit percentage stake worth several hundred billion

yen from the private equity consortium, and had confirmed on July 17 that discussions were

Richard Trainor taking place. Seven & i states it will continue to "pursue investment opportunities that can

+44 20 7762 1050

richard.trainor@bernsteinsg.com create long-term value."

For Zabka's share price, we expect the immediate impact of this news on Monday William Woods

+44 20 7676 6806 morning is to be a substantial negative move. Zabka's stock rose 20% on the news of

william.woods@bernsteinsg.com Seven & i's interest. Investors were optimistic about the impact of exchanging a strategic

investor for a private equity investor, partially ending the 'overhang' effect of the 52% free

Ran Yang float. The proposed investment also seemed to underwrite Zabka's international ambitions +852 2123 2658

ran.yang@bernsteinsg.com (which we wrote about last week, see Zabka: What is the size of the international prize?).

Investors had been wondering what the premium offered would be if Seven & i ended up

Alice Buckley offering take over the whole company. We believe the share price rise reflected a view on

+44 20 7676 6739 the probability of a binary outcome, and that it will now reverse. On a more fundamental alice.buckley@bernsteinsg.com

basis, this news does not change Zabka's attractive economics or its ability to continue

its rapid roll-out in Poland and Romania.