Japanese convenience store chain Lawson Inc. was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, ending its 24-year-long history as a public company, following a takeover bid by KDDI Corporation earlier this year.
The tender offer followed an agreement between telecom carrier KDDI and Lawson's parent company, trading house Mitsubishi Corporation, to take the convenience chain private, Kyodo News reported.
The offer would see Mitsubishi and KDDI jointly manage the retailer, with each owning a 50 percent stake, with the acquisition process expected to be completed by September, the report said.
KDDI, which previously held 2.1 percent of Lawson shares, spent nearly 500 billion yen (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) on the tender offer.
"As far as I know, this is the largest enterprise investment of KDDI. Because making profit from cellphone business has little room for further development, it is necessary to work with other industries to tap into new markets," said Yasuyuki Sasaki, a securities analyst.
As the second largest telecom carrier in Japan, KDDI is set to strengthen its finance and insurance businesses with the help of about 14,600 stores of Lawson while Lawson plans to improve the operation efficiency of its convenience stores through KDDI's digital technologies.
"As a convenience store operator, we need to follow closely the changes at the marketplace. We want to make transformation by using advanced technologies, so we have had this cooperation. It aims to faster the process of achieving a globalized convenience store chain with advanced technologies," said Tsukiuda Kazuki, executive director of Lawson.
The Japanese convenience store industry is also facing challenges like high market saturation and understaffing.
"As Japan's population keeps shrinking, there are many uncertainties in its economy. For the retail industry, the most direct impact will be a smaller market. For enterprises, there are two ways to expand their market -- either tapping into new fields or going overseas. I think for Lawson, this time, they are trying to step into new fields," said Yasuyuki Sasaki.
With some 14,600 stores in Japan, Lawson is the country's third-largest convenience store chain behind market leader 7-Eleven and FamilyMart.
Japanese convenience store chain Lawson delisted from Tokyo stock exchange after 24 years
Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit resonated with the common aspiration of more than 2.8 billion Chinese and African people and demonstrated China's firm will of moving forward hand-in-hand with Africa along the path of development, revitalization and modernization, several participants at the event have said.
In his speech on Thursday, Xi proposed that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China be elevated to the level of strategic relations, and that the overall characterization of China-Africa relations be elevated to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
He also announced that the Chinese government will provide 360 billion yuan (about 50.8 billion U.S. dollars) of financial support to Africa over the next three years.
"Everyone was happy to hear those news, so everyone was clapping. So now we are going to a higher level of relations between China and Africa," said Hamidou, a counselor at the Embassy of Comoros in Beijing.
"China understands Africa's urgent desire to advance modernization. We can learn a lot from China's development," said Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso Karamoko Jean Marie Traore.
Xi also suggested 10 partnership actions for modernization that China will take together with Africa in the next three years to deepen China-Africa cooperation and spearhead modernization in the Global South.
"President Xi, through his long vision of the needs of countries and his interest in supporting development, has offered this as a real vehicle to promote exports of Africa to China, which is a huge market," said Alaa Ezz, secretary general of the Union of African Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture, and Professions (UACCIAP).
"As he told this morning, we have many projects in digitalization, in capacity building, in health centers, support for health, for infrastructure, in the framework of the Belt and [Road]. And we think that we are very satisfied with this partnership. This is a win-win partnership," said Gabriel Mbairobe, Cameroon's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, the 2024 FOCAC summit brought together leaders from China and over 50 African countries, who highlighted the common pursuit of China and African countries in realizing modernization.
During the summit, both sides unanimously adopted two important documents -- a declaration on jointly building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, and an action plan of the FOCAC for the next three years.
Xi's speech at FOCAC summit resonates with people's common aspiration: participants
