SoftBank and mobile payments operator PayPay are in the talks to invest in Seven & i, the retail giant behind 7-Eleven, according to Bloomberg. The report mentioned the investment will likely be worth several hundred billion yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Card, a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, might also take a stake.
This deal would unite two of Japan’s major payment service providers with the country’s No. 1 convenience-store network. This would help fend off competing retail-payment alliances. Seven & i has been under pressure from investors for years about its lackluster returns. In March, the company agreed to sell off its supermarkets business, comprising stores that are much bigger than convenience stores and which operated under separate brand names, to private equity firm Bain Capital.
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The Bloomberg report mentioned that SoftBank is planning to use its in-house artificial intelligence to improve store management. It is also looking to use autonomous robots to reduce manpower required in the stores.
The report also said that SoftBank, PayPay and Sumitomo Mitsui are in negotiations and aim to sign a deal this summer, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions are in flux, and there is a chance that the deal won’t come to be.
Seven & i operates its own payments and loyalty program, which could potentially be combined with PayPay’s 74 million users. PayPay, owned by SoftBank, competes against digital-payments and loyalty points networks operated by Rakuten Group Inc. and NTT Docomo Inc.
Earlier this year, PayPay completed its U.S. IPO, opening at $19, compared with the $16 offer price. PayPay and an investment fund controlled by the SoftBank Group sold about 55 million American Depositary Shares below the marketed range of $17 to $20 to raise roughly $880 million.
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SoftBank Corp., the domestic telecommunications arm of SoftBank Group, has been developing AI tools for enterprise clients with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. OpenAI has also been the focus of an investment push for SoftBank, with its cumulative commitment investment set to exceed $60 billion by the end of 2026.
Earlier this year, Seven & i revealed that Toshifumi Suzuki, the Japanese businessman credited with transforming 7-Eleven into a global retail powerhouse, died of heart failure. Suzuki is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Japan’s modern retail industry, and is known for being extremely influential to the country’s convenience store culture.