Dollar General Extends Family Dollar Offer to Oct. 31

In its latest effort to acquire Family Dollar Stores Inc., Dollar General today extended its tender offer provided to all shareholders of the Charlotte-based discounter through Oct. 31. The previous deadline was 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.

No 'speedy resolution'

"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 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 continued.

She concluded that feedback from Dollar General’s presentation to 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.

Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General Corp. operates more than 11,500 stores in 40 states.