99 Cents Stores (NDN) Agrees to Takeover Bid

A bid by Ares Management LLC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board of approximately $1.6 billion in cash for 99 Cents Only Stores (NYSE:NDN) has been approved by the company. The company has been searching for a buyer for about half a year.

99 Cents Only Stores number 289 in the United States, and has the backing of the founding Gold/Schiffer family.

A sale of the company has been on the table since April, when the Gold/Schiffer family and Leonard Green & Partners LP made a $1.34 billion offer to take the company private. Another offer isn't expected from the two, as the current offer is considered to accurately value the company.

According to Chief Executive Officer Eric Schiffer, as of the end of the fiscal first quarter of the company, it is debt free, with sales of $368.3 million, an increase of 6.3 percent.

Smaller discount stores are increasingly major competitors to Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), which for many consumers has become too large for them; taking too much time to shop there. This is why Wal-Mart is beginning to incorporate smaller stores into its retail arsenal in order to combat the dollar stores which have drawn away customers from the retail giant.