Dollar General Continues Push for Family Dollar

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. – Dollar General Corp. extended its tender offer provided to all shareholders of Family Dollar Stores Inc. through Oct. 31. The tender offer was set to expire on Oct. 8.

The terms of the bid, currently set at $80 per share, or $9.1 billion, remain the same. Dollar General made identical offers to the Family Dollar board of directors on Sept. 2 and Sept. 10, both of which were rejected.

As of Sept. 30, 126,499 shares of Family Dollar common stock have been validly tendered, according to Dollar General.

Although Dollar General has been a perseverant buyer, according to Kelly Tackett, Planet Retail director, Family Dollar will likely remain a hard sell as anti-trust regulatory concerns continue at the forefront.

"I don’t foresee any kind of speedy resolution for Dollar General.  Although the extension of the tender offer is by no means unusual, Dollar General admittedly has a difficult task in persuading Family Dollar shareholders to assume the risk that the deal will pass federal regulators," Tackett told CSNews Online's sister publication, Progressive Grocer.

"And the recent Family Dollar filing mentioning that some state attorneys general have told the retailer that they would investigate the Dollar General deal is likely to further stoke shareholder fears," Tackett said.

She added that feedback from Dollar General’s presentation to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will ultimately be the deciding factor.  "It's now a question of if and when the FTC will provide that feedback," Tackett said.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., KKR Capital Markets and MCS Capital Markets, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP are advisors to Dollar General.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Family Dollar has repeatedly rejected Dollar General's acquisition bid in favor of an $8.5-billion, or $74.50 per share, deal with Dollar Tree.