Seven & I Holdings Co. dropped the most in 11 months after brokerage CLSA Securities Japan Co. cut its rating on the stock, saying investors may be disappointed with the retailer’s new business plan.
(Bloomberg) — Seven & I Holdings Co. dropped the most in 11 months after brokerage CLSA Securities Japan Co. cut its rating on the stock, saying investors may be disappointed with the retailer’s new business plan.
The stock fell as much as 5.4% in Tokyo trading Friday, the largest intraday decline since April. Nigel Muston, an analyst at CLSA, cut his rating to “underperform” from “outperform,” saying he expects a correction near term because the company remains a conglomerate.
Seven & I is closing roughly one out of every four of its 126 Ito-Yokado stores in Japan, many of them in regional cities, it said in its mid-term business plan presentation Thursday, marking the retailer’s latest response to pressure from an activist investor to streamline its business.
The company, which operates 83,000 stores globally, will focus more on its core food and convenience stores operations, it said.
The retailer raised business targets in its new plan, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, to reach ¥1.1 trillion or more ($8.1 billion) in fiscal 2025.
“There were no spinoffs or new IPO announced” despite the slight upgrade of profit forecasts and more focus on shareholder returns, Muston said in a note to clients Thursday.
ValueAct Capital Management LP has been pushing Seven & I to narrow its business focus on its 7-Eleven stores, asserting that would help to more than double its share price.
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