CONSUMER PRODUCTS

RJR Nabisco Criticizes Move to Force Spinoff: The holding company assailed an initiative by corporate raiders Bennett LeBow and Carl Icahn to force an immediate spinoff of its Nabisco food company. RJR Chief Executive Charles Harper said in a letter to LeBow that the company remains committed to spinning off the 80.5% of Nabisco it owns sometime in the future. RJR’s second-largest shareholders with 13 million shares, LeBow and Icahn said they would ask shareholders to vote on the spinoff. “Your threatened consent solicitation would, if carried out, endanger this company’s ability to successfully effect a spinoff at what would be the right time,” Harper said in the letter. On the New York Stock Exchange, RJR shares rose one-eighth to $30.875.