MARC Ratings views the credit profile of 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Berhad (7-Eleven Holdings) will not be materially impacted from the proposed disposal of its entire 75% stake in Caring Pharmacy Group Berhad to BIG Pharmacy Holdings Sdn Bhd. Accordingly, the rating on 7-Eleven Holdings’ Medium-Term Notes (MTN) Programme remains at AA-/Stable which was affirmed in May 2023.

The rating agency notes that with the pending disposal of Caring, which operates retail pharmacy chains, 7-Eleven Holdings would rely solely on its convenience store operations. On excluding the contribution from Caring, 7-Eleven Holdings’ credit metrics would revert to when the rating was initially assigned. This is because the funding for the acquisition of Caring for RM266.9 million in 2020 was mostly through borrowings, notwithstanding that Caring contributed to about 30% of group revenue and operating profit in 2022. The proceeds from the disposal of RM675 million are expected to be utilised to strengthen the group’s balance sheet by reducing borrowings and to fund business expansion, in particular for the 7-Café format stores.

7-Eleven Holdings will use RM250 million of the proceeds to pare down borrowings, including the RM150 million MTN maturing in June 2024. Coupled with the deconsolidation of Caring, group borrowings would reduce to RM451 million from RM770 million as at end-June 2023. Group debt-to-equity ratio, adjusted to exclude reorganisation deficit, would improve to below 0.30x from 0.46x as at end-2022. 7-Eleven Holdings is expected to accelerate the rollout pace of its 7-Café format stores which has reached 144 stores or 5.8% of its 2,499 total store base as at end-June 2023 (end-2022: 88 7-Café stores; 3.6%). Going forward, the group’s growth will now be driven by the expedited rollout of the 7-Café format stores — which offer a wide variety of ready-to-eat products — that have largely generated higher sales than its standard convenience stores.