LAVAL, Quebec – Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s newly formed subsidiary -- Couche-Tard Norway AS -- today will carry out a compulsory acquisition of the final shares it does not own of Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA (SFR).

Couche-Tard announced it owned 98.83 percent (296.48 million shares) of SFR as of June 26. More than 94 percent of those shares were acquired via a voluntary purchase offer and the remainder were bought on the open market, said Couche-Tard.

Per the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act, Couche-Tard can now acquire the remaining 1.17 percent of SFR shares still outstanding. However, any SFR shareholders who object or reject Couche-Tard's offer price of $2.679 billion for the Scandinavian-based convenience store chain can still raise those comments by Sept. 4.

According to a Couche-Tard news release, once Couche-Tard owns 100 percent of SFR's shares, SFR will apply for delisting from the Oslo, Norway, stock exchange.

Alimentation Couche-Tard operates 5,817 North American convenience stores, including many in the United States under the Circle K name.

SFR operates convenience stores throughout Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.