Seven & I Holdings, Asia's leading retail group, yesterday increased its tender offer to buy out 7-Eleven Inc, its US affiliate, by 15 per cent to $1.2bn after an earlier offer was rejected by the American company as "inadequate".

The Japanese group, which aims to buy the remaining 27.3 per cent of 7-Eleven Inc it does not own, said it would raise its tender offer price to $37.50 a share from the offer of $32.50 a share.