The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that investors are buying Seven & i Holdings shares using borrowed funds by the most in at least a decade, amid growing hopes of a speedy takeover of the Japanese retail giant by its founding family. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that the total outstanding margin purchases last week more than tripled from the previous week to 27.53 million shares, according to Tokyo Stock Exchange data. That is the highest since at least 2014. Shares surged on Nov. 20 after a report the founding Ito family is looking to complete a deal to take the company private by the end of its fiscal year. There is risk of investors selling the shares if the management buyout does not progress, according to Makoto Sengoku, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory. Should the Ito family's offer close, that would kill any hope for Alimentation Couche-Tard's bid to acquire Seven & i, owner of the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores.