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UK's Whitbread signals it is open to selling Costa Coffee or Premier Inn

Whitbread PLC, which announced April 25 that it would demerge its Costa Coffee chain, indicated that it is open to a sale of its coffee shops or its hotel business.

In a document dated June 1 and posted on the company's website, Whitbread, referring to the demerger, said that a transaction could be "implemented by way of a demerger or by way of a sale to a third party of all or substantially all of either the Costa business or the Premier Inn business."

The U.K. hotels and restaurant operator made the disclosure in a document about changes to the directors' remuneration policy that require shareholder approval at the company's annual general meeting June 27.

Costa has 2,400 coffee shops in the U.K. in addition to 1,400 stores in 31 international markets and 8,000 Costa Express self-service units, according to Whitbread's website. Premier Inn operates more than 785 hotels in the U.K. comprising 72,000 rooms and is targeting growth to 85,000 rooms by 2020.

A spinoff of Costa has been discussed for years, but pressure on management intensified with activist investor Elliott Management Corp. in April building a stake in the company and pushing for a breakup of the business.

Whitbread in April said it intended to demerge the Costa business within 24 months.