Couche-Tard Plans to Buy Poland's Zabka for About $8.7 Billion

By Megan Cheah

Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard plans to acquire Poland's largest convenience retailer Zabka for about $8.7 billion to expand its footprint in central and eastern Europe.

The deal, if successful, would be the largest-ever acquisition for the owner of Circle K, which abandoned a $47 billion takeover attempt of Seven & i, the Japanese owner of 7-Eleven, last July.

Couche-Tard said Friday that its subsidiary Circle K Polska will launch a tender offer for all shares of Zabka Group at 32 Polish zlotys each, representing a total equity value of about 32.62 billion zlotys, equivalent to $8.73 billion. Zabka shares last closed at 29.26 zlotys on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

The Canadian convenience-store operator expects to commence the offer around late August and complete the deal by December.

The move comes less than a week after Seven & i decided against proceeding with a potential investment in ⁠Zabka.

Zabka operates more than 13,000 stores across Poland and Romania and boasts around 4.3 million average daily transactions. The Polish food retailer also boasts around 11.7 million users across its digital channels.

Couche-Tard said it expects to fund the deal through fully committed debt facilities. It expects the acquisition to be accretive to its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margin at the outset, and accretive to its earnings per share by the second year after closing.

Write to Megan Cheah at megan.cheah@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2026 02:05 ET (06:05 GMT)