Seven & i, Nissan Deal Fallout Leaves Japan Companies Vulnerable

  • Foreign ownership concerns underpinned hasty rescue plans
  • Opportunities for overseas investors have never been bigger
Nissan Motor Co. vehicles in a showroom at the company’s headquarters in Yokohama, Japan.Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg
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It seemed like an extraordinary display of patriotism and unity: Japan’s biggest companies would come together to save their own, whether ailing carmaker Nissan Motor Co. or besieged convenience store giant Seven & i Holdings Co.

Roughly six months later, ambitious plans to merge Nissan with Honda Motor Co. and take the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores private have both fallen apart, leaving them grasping for solutions and potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.