Levine continues to shed ownership of Family Dollar

Howard Levine, Family Dollar’s CEO, continues to shed his ownership of the Matthews-based company, which is being sold to rival Dollar Tree.

Levine will sell “approximately one to two million shares” of Family Dollar over the next five days, according to a securities filing Monday afternoon. The transaction could be worth $78.8 million to $157.4 million, according to Family Dollar’s closing stock price Monday.

According to the filing, Levine expects “to commence these sales as early as March 2.”

Last month, Levine sold almost 1.8 million shares for about $135 million. He now owns 6.2 percent of the discount retail company, or about 7.1 million of the total 114.4 million shares outstanding.

Virginia-based Dollar Tree recently said it expects anti-trust approval from the Federal Trade Commission of its $8.5 billion purchase of Family Dollar by early March.

Dollar Tree also said it expects regulators will require “no more than roughly 300 stores” to shutter and that it’s working to close the deal by April 27.

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 7:33 AM with the headline "Levine continues to shed ownership of Family Dollar."