Trading house Itochu Corp. said Tuesday it has secured an additional 15.61 percent of shares in convenience store chain operator FamilyMart Co. via a tender offer, raising its stake to 65.71 percent despite some shareholders' opposition to the move.

Itochu sought to boost its holding from 50.1 percent to take full control of FamilyMart through a tender offer to help the country's second-largest convenience store operator by sales, which is struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The trading house said on July 8 that it would pay 2,300 yen ($22) per share, a 30.24 percent premium on the previous day's close of 1,766 yen, to buy the remaining shares between July 9 and Aug. 24.

But some shareholders including Oasis Management Co. objected that the offer price was too low. On the last day of the tender offer, FamilyMart shares ended at 2,257 yen.

Itochu aims to speed up decision-making at FamilyMart and help expand its business in Asia to make up for limited growth potential in the saturated domestic market.

FamilyMart shares will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, subject to approval for a share merger at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, Itochu said.

In the three months to May, FamilyMart suffered a 71.5 percent drop in net profit to 5.79 billion yen, failing to draw consumers while people were asked to stay at home and work remotely.

==Kyodo

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