ANKENY, Iowa - Casey??s General Stores, Inc. announced on Friday that its board of directors reviewed, with the assistance of financial and legal advisors, an unsolicited proposal received from Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. on March 9 to acquire Casey??s for $36 per share in cash.

The board unanimously determined that the proposal is not in the best interests of the corporation and informed Couche-Tard on March 29 that it had rejected the proposal. Casey??s sent a letter to Couche-Tard in response to Couche-Tard??s public letter released last week.

"We are very disappointed that you have decided to launch a hostile public campaign regarding your unsolicited proposal to acquire Casey's for $36 per share in cash," the letter began.

The letter went on to outline several of the strengths Casey??s has. "We have important strategic growth initiatives underway that we expect will contribute meaningfully to our top and bottom lines and increase shareholder value in the near and long-term. Given our consistent out-performance among convenience store operators and our ongoing growth initiatives, along with the fact we own virtually all of our real estate, your proposal vastly undervalues Casey??s and our future prospects."

The letter shared that the company would continue "to build on our exceptional track record of performance. We have had positive inside same-store sales growth for 24 consecutive quarters, based in part on the strength of our proprietary prepared food program, and this is a trend we expect to continue. We have the highest inside sales margins in the industry, which have enabled us to achieve double-digit annual EPS growth. Additionally, we have increased our dividend at a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 18 percent over the past five years."

Casey??s President and CEO Robert Myers concluded the letter by writing that "Casey??s is in a position of financial and operational strength, which gives us the flexibility to execute a wide variety of strategic initiatives."