Life Corporation will acquire Hokuriku-based food supermarket chain Albis through a tender offer valued at up to ¥26.3 billion, or approximately $170.9 million. The offer runs from September 9 through November 10 at ¥3,780 per share, a 51% premium to Albis’s ¥2,500 closing price on September 8. Albis shares hit a daily limit-up bid on September 9 as investors moved to price in the offer. Life Corporation plans to acquire 6,966,769 shares, with a minimum condition of 4,171,200 shares, equal to 60% of Albis’s outstanding shares. Albis’s board supports the transaction and recommends that shareholders tender their shares. Life Corporation intends to make Albis a wholly owned subsidiary, after which Albis is expected to be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market. The deal is Life Corporation’s first acquisition of a peer supermarket operator and would expand its presence into Hokuriku and Chukyo, where Albis has little geographic overlap with Life Corporation’s Tokyo metropolitan and Kinki operations. The companies aim to achieve economies of scale through joint procurement, logistics integration, payment systems and artificial intelligence initiatives. The transaction adds to a broader consolidation trend in Japan’s supermarket sector, which faces population decline, an aging society, higher operating costs and competition from drugstores and discount stores.