F Ross Johnson

A spokeswoman for the Winston-Salem, N.C., food and tobacco company confirmed that F. Ross Johnson, the company's president and chief executive, told financial analysts that profits from the tobacco business were smaller than those generated by food. Johnson said the company was considering a spinoff of the unit into a limited partnership, but he declined to give details of the proposals under study.

RJR Nabisco Inc. has agreed to sell Heublein Inc. to London-based Grand Metropolitan PLC for $1.2 billion in cash, F. Ross Johnson, president and chief executive officer of RJR, said today. Heublein, based in Hartford, Conn., markets nearly 100 brands of spirits, wines and imported beers. Its major brands include Smirnoff vodka and Inglenook and Lancers wines. Grand Metropolitan has interests in spirits and wines through its subsidiary, International Distillers and Vintners.

Can stratospheric high finance, which appears so tedious and complicated on paper, really be this much of a hoot? You can't imagine a more deliciously entertaining movie about the $25-billion leveraged buyout of R.J.R. Nabisco Co. The script by Larry Gelbart, based on a bestseller by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, demonstrates that the former "MASH" head writer is as acutely clever and witty as ever. Former Nabisco president F.

RJR Nabisco Inc., the tobacco and food products giant that recently went private in a $24.7-billion buyout, said today that American Express Co. President Louis Gerstner Jr. will be its new chairman, president and chief executive officer. Gerstner, 47, heads up Amex's Travel Related Services Co. unit, which manages the company's lucrative charge card and travelers' check businesses. He will take office at RJR on April 3, replacing acting Chairman and Chief Executive J. Paul Sticht.

Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. on Thursday took control of RJR Nabisco Inc. as the biggest corporate buyout in history flooded money markets with cash and credit transfers needed for the record $25-billion buyout. Despite its huge cost--about twice the size of any other previous corporate transaction--the deal went smoothly, Wall Street sources and banking officials said.

RJR Nabisco Inc. will move its headquarters to the metropolitan New York area from Atlanta, the food and tobacco giant announced Thursday, shortly after shareholders approved the record $24.53-billion buyout of the company by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. RJR Nabisco said its new chairman, Louis Gerstner Jr., sent a letter to employees saying the plans of the firm can "best be achieved by maintaining close ongoing contact with the investment banking...

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. charged Friday that managers of RJR Nabisco Inc. may be trying to sell off "substantial" pieces of the food and tobacco giant, a move that would make it less attractive in the face of the investment firm's $20.3-billion tender offer.

R. J. Reynolds Industries, which is combining its Del Monte and Nabisco Brands operations Jan. 1 into an international food-and-beverage concern to be called Nabisco Brands Inc. announced a number of top-management assignments for the new company, which will have annual sales of about $9 billion. Nabisco Brands' management will report to F. Ross Johnson, Reynolds' president and chief operating officer. Under the new lineup, James O.