The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Couche-Tard is planning to finance a potential acquisition of 7-Eleven parent Seven & i Holdings mostly with debt. The Globe's Jameson Berkow and Nicolas Van Praet write that analysts had previously estimated the Canadian parent of the Circle K chain, which is offering $47-billion in cash, would use debt to cover less than half of the purchase price, with the vast majority of the money coming from sales of new stock (all figures U.S.). Couche-Tard chief financial officer Filipe Da Silva told The Globe that the new equity component of any transaction would be minimal. "We have the capacity to stretch the leverage of the company, we are able to raise a significant amount of debt and that would be the main part of the funding of this transaction," Mr. Da Silva said from Tokyo. According to RBC analyst Irene Nattel, Couche-Tard could take on $19-billion in debt while keeping its debt-to-earnings ratio at four, meaning the company would owe four dollars in debt for every dollar it earned. That figure suggests Couche-Tard would need to sell about $38-billion in new stock. The company also owns about $35-billion in real estate holdings, which could be spun off.