Whitbread to sell Costa coffee chain to Coca-Cola for £3.9bn

Leisure group Whitbread has agreed to sell the UK's biggest coffee chain Costa to Coca-Cola for £3.9bn.Whitbread acquired Costa in 1995 for £19m when it had 39 shops.The leisure group, which owns the Premier Inn hotel business, had been under pressure from shareholders to demerge and list the coffee chain as a separate company.