Reuters News

Brookfield Property Partners LP, one of the largest commercial real estate companies, said this week it has invested in Honest Buildings, a New York project management startup that compiles data for property owners to make construction projects more efficient, Reuters reported. Brookfield led a group that raised US$13 million for Honest Buildings in the hopes its platform can establish an industry-leading standard for large property owners that need greater clarity into construction projects. Greensoil Building Innovation Fund was among the other investors in the company's Series B financing. Honest Buildings' first move abroad will be Canada and then other countries alongside Brookfield, Founder and CEO Riggs Kubiak said.

Canadian debt issuance climbed 12 percent to a record in the first nine months of 2017, helped by deals from Canada Housing Trust and a major maple bond from Apple, bucking a weak trend in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and equity deals as Canadian companies slowed the pace of their outbound deal-making, Reuters reported. Debt deal volumes rose to $140.5 billion in the period, while M&A and equity deals dropped more than a fifth, according to Thomson Reuters data released this week. High valuations and uncertainty surrounding U.S. regulations and trade policies held back Canadian buyers from acquiring overseas assets, bankers said. But the maple bond market, in which foreign companies sell Canadian dollar-denominated debt, attracted a slew of blue-chip companies.