LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nelson Peltz's Trian Group offered to buy Family Dollar Stores Inc for $55 to $60 per share in cash, sending the discounter's shares up 31 percent.
Trian's bid, disclosed in a securities filing on Tuesday, represents at least a 25 percent premium to Family Dollar's closing price of $43.96 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Family Dollar had 126.4 million shares outstanding as of December 27, 2010, which would imply a deal of $7.6 billion at $60 per share.
Peltz, a billionaire investor, has in the past pushed for change at consumer companies ranging from ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co
Peltz disclosed a stake in Family Dollar in July and suggested that its shares were undervalued.
Neither Peltz or Family Dollar were immediately available for comment.
The news pushed up shares in other so-called dollar stores, with Dollar General Corp
Shares in Family Dollar jumped 31 percent to $57.78 in extended trading.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein, Jonathan Stempel and Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)
