November 15, 1985

The Ford Motor Company said today that it would buy 20 million of its common shares, continuing a stock repurchase program. It also said it was exploring ways to take more advantage of the value of its credit and aerospace subsidiaries, perhaps by spinning off and selling shares in the units. Company officials said the actions were being taken because of the low value the stock market has put on Ford's shares, despite its current prosperity. Ford earned a hefty $1.8 billion in the first three quarters of 1985, but its shares have been selling for about $48 each, which is barely more than four times annualized per share earnings.

Companies Beatrice accepted a $50-a-share takeover offer from Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts. The $6.2 billion takeover would be the biggest ever outside the oil business. Kohlberg was chosen over a rival, a partnership of E. F. Hutton and Dart Group. To secure the deal, Kohlberg got an option to buy the grocery group and Tropicana subsidiaries for $2.39 billion, or the Tropicana, meat, soft drinks and bottled water businesses for $2.4 billion. [Page D1.] Donald P. Kelly, who is expected to lead Beatrice, is likely to sell off billions of dollars of operations, some analysts said. [D4.] Ford plans to buy 20 million common shares, continuing a stock repurchase program. It is also exploring ways to get more value out of its credit and aerospace subsidiaries. It might spin off the units, selling some shares in them but retaining control. [D1.]

''My mission, stated simply, is a mission for peace.'' - President Reagan. [A1:2.]

When South Korea's major shipbuilders announced layoffs of thousands of workers last week, they sent an alarming message to the other players in this industry: Even the world's most efficient shipyards are struggling. That the shipbuilding business, from Hamburg, West Germany, to Kobe, Japan, is hurting is no surprise. The industry has been reeling for years. What is new is that the problems have reached the South Koreans, whose low materials cost and inexpensive labor are the envy of the industry. ''You know things are in bad shape when the picture gets pretty bad for Japan and Korea, who together have about 70 percent of the worldwide market and are the price setters,'' said M. Lee Rice, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America.

The British and Irish Cabinets approved today a long-awaited agreement that is expected to give the Dublin Government a powerless but symbolically important advisory role in the affairs of Northern Ireland. Officials in Ireland and Britain declined to describe anything more than the broad outlines of the pact before Friday, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Garret FitzGerald, her Irish counterpart, are expected to meet to sign the accord. Treachery Is Charged But even without the details of the new arrangement, which follows a year of intensive negotiations, there were cries of ''treachery'' from spokesmen for the one million Protestants in the province. Throughout this century, the Protestants have clung fiercely to their British citizenship and resisted the nationalist idea of a united Ireland in which Roman Catholics would form an overwhelming majority.