Circle K and Mac's convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard said on Friday that it had offered to buy Casey's General Stores for $36 a share in cash.

This represents a 14 percent premium over Casey's Thursday closing price of $31.59 on Nasdaq. Shares of the Iowa-based company jumped 21.6 percent to $38.40 in Friday trading before the market opened.

Montreal-based Couche-Tard, which operates 3,600 convenience stores in the United States under the Circle K banner and more than 5,400 under the Mac's name in Canada, said the deal had a total enterprise value of approximately $1.9 billion, including $29 million in debt.

($1=$1.00 Canadian)

(Reporting by Scott Anderson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Canada