The activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors has secretly built a stake of more than 6% in Whitbread, in order to force the FTSE 100 titan to spin off its Costa Coffee chain.
A disclosure late last night confirmed that the Wall Street fund made an aggressive move in the market on Friday — acquiring a total shareholding worth more than £430m.
The share raid makes Elliott the largest investor in the £7.2bn leisure giant and will pile pressure on its chief executive, Alison Brittain. Although she has previously indicated she is “open-minded”on separating Costa from the group, Brittain has suggested such a move would be premature now.
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