Trading house Itochu looks to finance Seven & i management buyout

Trading house Itochu Corp. is considering helping finance the potential buyout of Seven & i Holdings Co. by its management, responding to a request from the founding family of the Japanese retail giant, sources close to the matter said Monday.Itochu, the parent of convenience store chain operator FamilyMart Co., is apparently in the initial phase of the study, the sources said. The move could complicate the around 7 trillion yen ($45 billion) buyout offer by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. toward Seven & i.The Seven & i founding family, which anticipates a management buyout worth 9 t…READ FULL ARTICLE