The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition Alimentation Couche-Tard is paying $860-million for U.S. convenience store chain the Pantry Inc. (all figures U.S.). The Globe's Nicolas Van Praet writes Couche-Tard said Thursday it has struck an agreement to buy North Carolina-based Pantry, owner of the Kangaroo Express banner. Couche will pay $36.75 a share in cash for Pantry and its 1,500 stores, a 27-per-cent premium to Pantry's closing share price Tuesday. Including debt, the deal is valued at $1.7-billion. Even as its growing scale brings more potential deals its way, Couche-Tard finds itself in tougher competition for U.S. assets now with entities such as master limited partnership structures, which are shielded from corporate taxes. One such rival is Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, which bought gas-station owner Susser Holdings Corp. for $1.8-billion earlier this year in a bid to expand its retail business. Lower crude prices may also slow a move by oil producers such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil to divest their retail assets, making potential acquisition targets scarcer. Couche-Tard is hoping to double its store count to more than 25,000, from a current 13,100, by 2023.