Coca Cola agreed to buy second largest coffee chain in the world Costa from British company Whitbread Plc for $5,1 billion, Reuters reports.

Coca Cola will take over about 4000 outlets in the UK, Europe and China.

Shares of Whitbread gained 19% after announcement that the price is more than 700 million pounds higher than was expected.

Purchase of the largest coffee chain after Starbucks will help Coca Cola in implementation of diversification strategy into healthier drinks sector, especially, because company did not have its own hot beverages brand yet.

Whitbread was founded in 1742 and bought Costa in 1995, when company had only 39 shops. Now it has 2422 outlets in the UK and 1399 in international markets.