Aug 20 (Reuters) - Dollar General Corp said it had expressed an interest in merging with Family Dollar Stores Inc as early as June this year, but did not go ahead with an offer at that time as Family Dollar chief executive gave no indication that the company was in talks with Dollar Tree Inc .
Dollar General's representatives had expressed an interest for a deal during a meeting with Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine on June 19, but he did not mention anything about an imminent sale, the company said in a letter to the Family Dollar board.
"At no time during this meeting did Mr. Levine indicate that there was a process, that there was any urgency to act or that there were discussions with another potential buyer," Rick Dreiling, chief executive of Dollar General, said in the letter.
"Had we left the meeting with the belief that a sale of Family Dollar was imminent, we assure you that our course of action would have been different."
As a result, Dollar General said it is now forced to factor a $305 million break-up fee into its offer.
(Reporting by Ramkumar Iyer in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)