Foodland to open Wednesday in Wailuku

Foodland Super Market Ltd. will open a grocery store in Wai­luku at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The 35,000-square-foot Foodland at Keha­lani Village Center is the seventh Foodland, Sack N Save and Foodland Farms store on Maui and the 33rd in Hawaii.

The new Foodland will have full-service seafood, meat, deli, bakery, produce and floral departments, plus R. Field Wine Co., an in-store American Savings Bank and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop with a drive-through.

Foodland has committed $20,000 to help elementary schools in the area mark the store’s opening. The new Foodland will be open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Algae firm to work with Israeli company

Hawaii algae producer Cellana Inc. intends to partner with an algae producer in Israel to expand commercial operations.

San Diego-based Cellana, which has a production facility on Hawaii island, announced Monday that it has signed a letter of intent to partner with Galil Algae Cooperative Agriculture Society Ltd. Cellana said the goal of the partnership is to identify, cultivate, develop and bring up to scale algae strains with commercial value. The company also said the letter of intent contemplates establishing a research and development center in northern Israel. Such a partnership is subject to finalizing definitive agreements.

Cellana produces algae for uses that include dietary supplements, animal feed and fuel. Galil, led by CEO David Tso­ran, produces algae for aquaculture applications.

Board of Realtors has new website

The Honolulu Board of Realtors said Monday it has launched a redesigned website, www.hicentral.com, that is faster and accessible to the public. The website allows users to find listings by specific neighborhoods on every island statewide and get information about open houses via computer, tablet or smartphone.

Rochelle Lee Gregson, CEO of the Hono­lulu Board of Realtors, said, "Our membership has been asking for a more robust site that will allow consumers to search properties more efficiently, personalize their experience and use tools such as social media. This upgrade allows them to do that."

Heald College parent cuts deal with feds

A troubled for-profit college corporation has reached a temporary agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that will allow access to $16 million in federal student aid, enough to keep the company afloat. Monday’s agreement will allow more than 72,000 students at Corinthian Colleges Inc. campuses, including Heald College on Kapiolani Boulevard, to continue studies, but the company is also formulating a plan to sell or shut down many of its campuses.

Santa Ana, Calif.-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. signaled last week that it was in danger of shutting down, after the Education Department imposed a 21-day waiting period on the company’s access to crucial federal aid funds. The department has been investigating allegations of falsified job placement rates and other improprieties at Corinthian, and the company is also the subject of lawsuits and investigations brought by more than a dozen state attorneys general.

As part of the agreement, Corinthian pledged to sell many of its campuses and wind down operations at other underperforming campuses that are under heightened scrutiny by the Education Department. Corinthian said it would finalize the sales plan with the Department of Education by July 1.

Oracle buying Micros Systems for $5.3B

In its biggest deal in four years, tech giant Oracle Corp. moved Monday to shore up its stagnant sales and reassure investors by announcing plans to buy hospitality and retail services company Micros Systems Inc. for $5.3 billion.

Yet it remains unclear how much the transaction will help Oracle bolster its so-called cloud, or Internet-based, products, widely regarded as key to the Redwood City, Calif., company’s future. To augment its software and growing computer hardware business, Oracle has snapped up nearly 100 companies over the last decade, including Sun Microsystems, which it bought for $7.4 billion in 2010. But while many of its recent acquisitions were Internet-based, the cloud is a small part of Micros’ business.

Oracle’s chief executive officer and co-founder is Larry Ellison, owner of Island Air and 98 percent of Lanai.

U.S., French bank close to deal on $9B fine

WASHINGTON » The U.S. government and French bank BNP Pari­bas are close to a settlement over alleged sanctions violations that would require the bank to plead guilty, pay almost $9 billion in penalties and face other sanctions, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

The person described the deal as imminent.

BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank and the owner of First Hawaiian Bank, has been under investigation for financial transactions through its New York office for clients in Iran, Sudan and Cuba in violation of U.S. trade sanctions. A report by the Wall Street Journal said the bank intentionally hid $30 billion in such transactions.

ON THE MOVE

American Savings Bank has announced Brian Brennan as vice president and loan officer in the commercial real estate loan department. He has more than 14 years of commercial real estate experience, including working in San Francisco with Safeway, BRE Properties and Bank of America.

Xerox Hawaii has appointed Debbie Ragasa to marketing representative at its Hawaii island office. Prior to joining Xerox Hawaii, Ragasa worked at Goodwill Industries of Hawaii in Hilo for 10 years as well as AT&T Wireless in Hilo as a retail sales manager.

The HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union Foundation has awarded a $2,500 grant to Kahi Mohala Hospital, an affiliate of Sutter Health. The grant will underwrite the costs to experience ROPES for local at-risk youth. Reality-Oriented Physical Experiential Services, or ROPES, is a self-empowerment program that builds problem-solving skills and teaches cooperation through the power of team and individual physical experiences.

SHIP AHOY!

Today’s ship arrivals and departures:

HONOLULU HARBOR