Nelson Peltz's son-in-law Edward Garden joined the board of Family Dollar Stores Inc after the billionaire investor withdrew his offer to buy the discount chain for at least $7 billion.

In early March, Family Dollar snubbed Trian Group's bid to buy the company for $55-$60 a share saying it substantially undervalued the company.

Peltz's Trian Group owns about 8.29 percent of the company's stock.

Activist investor Bill Ackman called the company an attractive leveraged buyout candidate, just weeks before raising his stake in the retailer.

Discount and dollar stores have seen a flurry of deal activity this year as private equity investors have looked to tap into demand from bargain hungry consumers.

Garden is the chief investment officer and one of the founding members of Trian Partner. The addition of Garden will expand Family Dollar ' s board to eleven directors.

Trian has had a positive influence on Family Dollar and expect that to continue, Guggenheim analyst John Heinbockel said in a note to clients.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company's shares were down nearly 3 percent at $51.87 on Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Meenakshi Iyer and Abhishek Takle in Bangalore; Editing by Viraj Nair)

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