Canadian company offered 14.86 cash per share for 7Eleven operator
Target warns deal would likely face significant US antitrust challenges
CoucheTard39;s proposal unlikely to be its last and best offeranalyst

TOKYO, Sept 6 Reuters Japanese retail giant Seven i Holdings 3382.T, opens new tab said on Friday it had turned down Canada39;s Alimentation CoucheTard39;s ATD.TO, opens new tab 38.5 billion cash bid, rejecting an offer that would be the largestever foreign buyout of a Japanese company.

7Eleven operator Seven i said the takeover proposal was not in the best interest of shareholders and was likely to face significant antitrust challenges in the U.S., where the combined company would be the convenience store industry39;s biggest by a considerable margin.

Seven i, which said last month it had received an offer from CircleK owner CoucheTard without naming the price, disclosed the bid was at 14.86 a share and said it was open to sincerely consider any proposals.

But it would resist any proposal that deprives our shareholders of the company39;s intrinsic value that fails to specifically address very real regulatory concerns, Seven i said in a letter addressed to CoucheTard.

We do not believe, for several critical reasons, that the proposal you have put forward provides a basis for us to engage in substantive discussions regarding a potential transaction, said the letter sent from Stephen Dacus, the chair of the Seven i special committee of independent…