Couche-Tard is considering raising the offer price for Seven & i, reports Bloomberg News By Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) – Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard is discussing how much it might raise the price of its takeover bid for Japan’s Seven & i Holdings, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with Couche-Tard’s internal discussions.

Couche-Tard earlier this week said it was willing to continue takeover talks after Seven & rejected its $38.5 billion offer.

Couche-Tard must offer a price significantly higher than the original proposal to get Seven & i to enter into negotiations, but whether the suitor will send another proposal to Seven & i remains uncertain, Bloomberg reported citing the sources.

Seven & has tapped Nomura to advise its board in preparation for a potential takeover battle with Couche-Tard, the Financial Times reported separately on Thursday.

Shares in Seven & i were up more than 4% in late morning trading on Thursday.

Couche-Tard said it was confident of arranging financing for the deal, which would be the largest-ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company.

Seven & told him last week that the deal was not in the best interests of its shareholders and could face antitrust challenges in the US, where the combined company would be the largest operator of convenience stores by a considerable margin.