Royal Hawaiian parking adds automation

Waikiki’s largest shopping center is adding some automation to its parking system.

Royal Hawaiian Center said it began using four payment machines Wednesday on the four lowest levels of the mall connected to the 10-story parking garage.

The machines near the garage elevators accept cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and JCB credit cards. A parking attendant at the exit still will be available to help customers.

Customers must still validate parking tickets to take advantage of validated rates that include a promotion through Dec. 31 offering the first hour free and $1 per hour after that for up to 4 hours with any purchase from a mall tenant. The regular rate is $6 per hour.

Wal-Mart pulls formula after baby’s death

LEBANON, Mo. » Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it has pulled a batch of powdered infant formula from stores nationwide after a newborn Missouri boy became gravely ill with a suspected infection and died after being taken off life support.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Dianna Gee said Wednesday the move is cautionary as health officials investigate Sunday’s death of 10-day-old Avery Cornett of Lebanon, Mo. No government recall has been ordered for the 12.5-ounce cans of Enfamil Newborn powder with the lot number ZP1J7G.

The Lebanon Daily Record reported Avery received a preliminary diagnosis of infection from a rare bacterium called Cronobacter sakazakii.

The formula’s manufacturer, Mead Johnson Nutrition, says the batch Wal-Mart pulled tested negative for the bacterium. Spokesman Christopher Perille says numerous companies sell the formula, though it’s unclear if others sold from that batch.

Stock buybacks rise for 9th straight quarter

BOSTON » America’s biggest corporations continued to spend more money on stock repurchases in the third quarter, with buybacks rising 49 percent compared with a year ago. Standard & Poor’s said Wednesday that stock repurchases by companies in the S&P 500 totaled $118 billion in the July-September period. That’s up from nearly $80 billion in last year’s third quarter. Buybacks also rose compared with this year’s second quarter.

Exxon Mobil Corp. was the company that spent the most on buybacks at $5.5 billion.

Buybacks have increased each quarter since the second quarter of 2009, when the financial crisis sent buyback spending down to $24 billion. Buybacks reward investors by increasing the value of remaining shares, and per-share earnings results. Shares are taken off the market, and earnings are divided among fewer shares.

KB Home profit falls but tops analysts’ view

LOS ANGELES » KB Home is increasingly catering to more affluent homebuyers in markets where there is less competition from homes up for resale and foreclosures, and the strategy is paying off.

The homebuilder reported on Wednesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 20 percent on rising expenses. But the company’s recent trends show improvement. KB’s new home orders jumped 38 percent from year earlier and home deliveries rose 4 percent. The average selling price of the builder’s homes rose 3 percent.

The surge in home orders drove a 61 percent increase in KB’s backlog of homes under contract at the end of the quarter — at 2,156, the highest year-end level since 2008. Backlog is a leading indicator of potential home deliveries and revenue for homebuilders.

KB reported earnings of $13.9 million, or 18 cents a share, for the three months ended Nov. 30. That compares with $17.4 million, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier. The results beat the 4 cents a share expected by analysts.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $479.9 million from $451 million, topping Wall Street’s $467.9 million forecast.

ECB lends banks $639 billion over 3 years

FRANKFURT, Germany » Struggling banks snapped up $639 billion in cheap loans from the European Central Bank on Wednesday, a sign of just how hard or expensive it has become to borrow from each other.

The huge demand for newly available three-year loans comes as fears rise that heavily indebted European governments could default and force banks and other bond holders to take big losses. The loans to 523 banks surpassed the $578 billion in one-year loans extended in June 2009, when the global financial system was reeling from the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. It was the biggest ECB infusion of credit into the banking system in the 13-year history of the euro.

ON THE MOVE

Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki and Golf Club has announced Edwin Mizuno will return as executive chef to the hotel where he worked as a sous chef in the 1990s. He has 25 years’ experience in the culinary field.

Michael Steiner has joined Honolulu law firm Clay Chapman Iwamura Pulice and Nervell as executive director. He has 20 years’ experience as a law firm administrator and is the only "Certified Legal Manager SM" in the state.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors has announced the following:

» Sandra "Sam" Bangerter is the "2011 Realtor of the Year." She is the principal broker of the family owned and operated RE/Max Kai Lani.

» Realtors who received Aloha Aina Realtor Awards were: Yvonne Jaramillo Ahearn, Home Shoppe Hawaii; Chelsey Flanagan, Kobatake Realty; Sharon Keating, Century 21 All Islands; David Kucic, Hawaii Military Realty; Denise Miyahira, Island, Realtors; Larry Saito, Hawaii Resource Realty; Lynn Wilkinson, Prudential Advantage Realty; and Susan Borochov, Lynn Plantz and Yukiko Sato of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties.

The Oahu Concierge Magazine has named Ritsuko Tsunashima-Kukonu of the Outrigger Reef Hotel as Concierge of the Year.