The owner of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has received an offer from a Canadian competitor to buy the company.

Tokyo-based Seven & i said on Monday that it had received an offer from Canadian convenience store multinational Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) to buy its shares in the company.

7-Eleven has grown into one of the world’s largest convenience store companies with over 84,000 stores in 19 countries, including 13,000 in the United States and 22,000 in Japan.

Montreal-based ACT is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has more than 16,700 stores and gas stations in 31 countries.

Seven & i confirmed that it had received a preliminary offer from ACT to acquire all outstanding shares and had now established a special committee to review the offer and make a recommendation to the board.

Seven & i shares rose 22% on Monday following news of the possible takeover, valuing the company at 5.6 trillion yen (£29.6 billion).

The Nikkei, which first reported the story, said the deal could be the largest foreign takeover of a Japanese company in history.

It will also be one of the first takeover attempts after the Japanese government relaxed rules last year that make it harder for boards to ignore unsolicited offers. Previous rules made it easier for CEOs and directors to block bids that went against the interests of shareholders.

7-Eleven’s history dates back to Texas in the 1920s, before the branch was given its name in 1946 because of its opening hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Since then, the company has spread across the United States and become synonymous with products such as Slurpee and 32-ounce Big Gulp beverages.

In 2005, the company was fully acquired by major shareholder Ito-Yokado via Seven & i and continued its expansion in the USA.

ACT began its convenience store brand in the province of Quebec over 40 years ago and now has 652 convenience stores and gas stations across Canada.

In 2003, the company bought the US convenience store Circle K, which is now present in over 24 countries worldwide.

The company has recently sought to strengthen its global presence through acquisitions, unsuccessfully attempting to buy French supermarket Carrefour for €16.2 billion (£13.7 billion) in 2021.

The company also made a bid for the US gas station chain Speedway, but was overtaken in the takeover of Seven & i.

The Seven & I committee investigating the takeover, headed by Stephen Hayes Dacus, has promised to conduct an immediate review, stressing that no decision has yet been made on whether to accept or reject the proposal.