ALSO

Whitman Corp. said it plans to spin off its Midas International unit, the world’s largest automotive service franchise, enabling it to focus on its giant Pepsi-Cola bottling business. Whitman also set plans to spin off Hussman Corp., the largest supplier of refrigeration systems for the food industry, with annual sales of about $1 billion. . . . Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., which last year pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges, named G. Allen Andreas, nephew of Chairman Dwayne Andreas, as president. . . . Republic Industries Inc. agreed to buy Value Rent-A-Car from Mitsubishi Motors Corp. for $77.5 million in cash or stock, as Republic seeks to boost its share of the car-rental market for tourists. . . . Rite Aid Corp. said the Federal Trade Commission closed, without taking action, its probe of Maryland pharmacies involved in a 1995 boycott of a pharmacy-benefits contract awarded by the state to Merck-Medco Managed Care Inc.