Britain's Whitbread to sell Costa Coffee to Coke for $5.1 billion

(Reuters) - Britain's Whitbread Plc said on Friday it had agreed to sell coffee chain Costa to Coca Cola for an enterprise value of 3.9 billion pounds ($5.1 billion).

The deal was unanimously agreed by the Whitbread board to be in the best interests of shareholders, the company said in a statement. It acquired the chain in 1995, for 19 million pounds when it had only 39 shops.

($1 = 0.7679 pounds)

(Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; editing by Kate Holton)