Dollar General launches public offering with low stock price

Goodlettsville, Tenn. In its Friday IPO re-launch, Dollar General attached a $21 price on the more than 34 million shares it and its majority owner are selling on the public stock exchange.

Dollar General's shares -- which will trade under the DG ticker as they did before the company went private in mid-2007 -- were priced at the low end of the expected range. Dollar General and its private-equity parent Kohlberg Kravis Roberts stand to take in about $445 million and $239 million, respectively, after the offering's costs are subtracted. The IPO's underwriters, who are led by Citi, Goldman Sachs and KKR itself, have the option to buy another $107 million worth of shares from KKR.

That range, published earlier this week, had raised some eyebrows in the investment community.