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Originally Posted by Paul M
Do you have evidence to back this up, or is this just made up guesswork ?
There is no evidence of 'brexit' or a 'weak pound' being invloved here, just business dealings ;
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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.