Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine to sell 1M to 2M shares of company

CHARLOTTE, NC (Katherine Peralta/The Charlotte Observer) - Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine is selling 1 million to 2 million shares of his stake of the Matthews-based company, according tosecurities filings from the company Wednesday.

Levine will divest the shares over the next 10 days starting Thursday, the filings showed. He currently owns about 7.8 percent of the company's outstanding stock and is the largest individual shareholder. Levine owns 8.9 million shares, so 1 million to 2 million shares represents something like 11 to 22 percent of his holdings.

Restrictions on his sale of the stock were lifted after a shareholder vote last week to sell the company to Virginia-based rival Dollar Tree for $8.5 billion, which rejected a hostile $9.1 billion bid from Dollar General.

Family Dollar's stock closed Thursday at $76.22 a share, so the sale could be worth $76.2 million to $152.2 million. As part of an incentive plan, the company also granted 1,179 shares, worth about $90,000, to each of its 11 board members, filings showed.

The sale of Family Dollar to Dollar Tree could close as soon as March. Yet to be determined is how many of the retailer's 1,300 Matthews employees will lose their jobs, and how many of its stores will close as a result of the merger.

Both companies have said they will maintain their headquarters, and the Family Dollar name will continue on as a subsidiary of Dollar Tree.