Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

The fact that Coca Cola bought Costa and the £ being weak is just pure coincidence.

I think you are looking too heavily into the situation.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

Interesting ! I will be in Cornwall later this month so will check that out. :)

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

Investors as a rule don’t like conglomerates. They make it harder to choose what business to put your cash into. On the surface there’s an obvious similarity between the various facets of Whitbread’s business but in investment terms a chain of coffee shops is light years away from a budget hotel. If the aim is to maximise the value of money invested then the activist investors are probably right, the two businesses standing apart would most likely have been worth more than the two combined.

Having said all that, Costa has now been swallowed up by a true global giant which for all its size has until now been really just a manufacturer of sugary drinks. A chain of coffee shops doesn’t really sit well with that. I suspect what they’re really after is just the brand name, in order to facilitate their entry into the coffee market, and those shops that aren’t already held by franchisees will get sold off.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

Costa-Cola or Coca-Costa, I know the name won't change...anyway I dislike both products.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

It's been happening for years Andrew. It's what's known as globalisation.
Makes you wonder how these companies are going to be able to operate in the UK if a no deal Brexit.

In 1963 about 7% of UK companies were foreign owned, by 1998 that had risen to about 31%, 2010 41%. I think there may be a trend here.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

Yes, there's probably a trend but two acquisitions of large UK companies close to one another is another trend too. Time will tell.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

Ownership of companies is irrelevant as long as they pay the correct taxes and employ British people.

If you buy a British company and then offshore it, then obviously that causes issues.

That said many British companies, owned and built up by British owners have offshored themselves( Brexiteer Dyson is a perfect example), well the manufacturering if not the R&D.

Virgin Media and other telcos, electricity, gas, water companies, for example, does it really matter who owns them? As long as they invest in their companies?

Virgin Media has been a US owned company since it was formed, they employ thousands and are currently investing billions in infrastructure that will benefit the country.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

The counter argument is that it does matter as future dividends will flow out of the country and investment decisions taken by foreign owners can disadvantage the UK. As Pip has pointed out, Heineken relocated production of Newcastle Brown to Heineken's home country of the Netherlands!

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

So Newky brown isn't Newky anymore. Taking the heart out of Newcastle.

Re: Coca-Cola to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn
 

The ARM Holdings deal was announced just a month after the Brexit vote. That deal would have been in negotiation many months before the referendom was even mooted so to link it to the Brexit vote and the subsequent drop on the value of Sterling is fanciful at best.

The company, being a holdings, is actually a multinational conglomerate. Only the HQ is in the UK.

The company was owned by Softbank Group a Japanese based company so sale to another Japanese company wouldn't be that unusual. So not even a UK company but hey let's not let facts spoil your assertion.;)