7-Eleven owner poised to reject Couche-Tard takeover bid

Good morning. Today we’re covering:

• The AstraZeneca employees under investigation in China

• China’s new back doors into western markets

• Why India struggles at sport

We start, however, with news on the foreign takeover bid for 7-Eleven’s Japanese owner.

The board of Seven & i Holdings is poised to reject the opening offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, and its pursuit of Japan’s biggest-ever buyout by a foreign company.

According to three people close to the Japanese company, a special committee set up by Seven & i to examine Couche-Tard’s bid last month will describe the offer as insufficient and raise concerns that the deal would trigger competition investigations from regulators.

In a response to Couche-Tard that the same people said could be sent as soon as today, the Japanese company will leave open the opportunity for the Canadian group to return with a higher offer, and keep the process running on a friendly basis for now.

Read more about the Seven & i board’s opposition to the takeover approach.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Crucial US jobs report: At stake in today’s data, investors believe, is the likely size of the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut later this month. It will also be closely watched after July’s report undershot expectations, triggering a brutal market sell-off around the world.

• Summit: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida begins a two-day visit to Seoul, where he will meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. AstraZeneca said a “small number” of its employees are under investigation by police in China. The UK drugmaker’s statement came after a report that five current and former employees had been detained over possible infringement of data privacy laws and the distribution of a liver cancer drug that had not been approved in the country.

2. China’s biggest banks are preparing to issue hundreds of billions of dollars in loss-absorbing bonds designed to avoid the costly government bailouts that swept Europe and the US in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. But rating agencies still expect Beijing to support the nascent market in times of crisis.

3. President Emmanuel Macron has named the EU’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s next prime minister. Barnier is a veteran of France’s conservative Les Républicains, a party Macron has wooed to find a candidate with a shot at commanding majority support in the National Assembly. Here’s how French political actors reacted to Barnier’s appointment.

4. Exclusive: Russia has been forced to start storing gas from Vladimir Putin’s Arctic LNG 2 project, in a sign that western sanctions are deterring buyers. According to ship-tracking data and satellite images, three vessels have shipped liquefied natural gas from the project, which is under US sanctions, since it started loading operations last month.

5. Donald Trump has unveiled a sweeping plan to lower prices and cut red tape and said he would appoint the world’s richest man Elon Musk to help him. The Republican candidate sought to draw a contrast with Kamala Harris’s economic vision in a speech to an audience of Wall Street executives.

What are the implications of the US election for Asia? Join us on September 26 for a webinar examining the possible economic and political consequences, with an emphasis on how the contest will shape financial markets and global trade. Register for free here.

The Big Read

Chinese companies are setting up shop in countries such as Singapore, Vietnam and Ireland, hoping to circumvent protectionist measures imposed by western powers against China-based companies. But as more Chinese exports are rerouted through these jurisdictions, officials in the US and Europe are growing increasingly concerned about the emergence of back doors into their markets.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

Rory Green, chief China economist at TS Lombard, found that GDP explained about 90 per cent of the variation in medal counts at the Paris Olympics. But India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, won just six medals this year. Why is it so bad at sport? Tej Parikh explains.

Take a break from the news

Household mess is an unavoidable fact of life — so why hide it from guests? Oliver Burkeman is embracing “scruffy hospitality”, a concept that would be valuable enough if all it conveyed was permission to put a little less effort into keeping a pristine home. But there’s more to it.

Additional contributions from Melody Abike Adebisi and Tee Zhuo