...Diversified Business Model: Cencosud S.A.'s (Cencosud) ratings reflect its strong business profile as a geographically diversified, multiformat retailer. It enjoys critical size in the food segment and benefits from a significant presence in the non-food retail segment. The company's stable EBITDA margin and high level of unencumbered assets related to its real estate segment also are viewed positively. Constraining factors are its exposure to Argentina's sovereign risk, the execution of its Brazilian business turnaround and improvement of Colombian operations. Deleveraging Expected to Continue: Cencosud's adjusted gross leverage, measured by total adjusted debt/EBITDAR, was 4.7x as of Dec. 31, 2015. Excluding financial services, the ratio was 4.0x. Fitch expects the company to reduce consolidated adjusted gross leverage toward 4.0x over the next 18 months. Cencosud divested noncore assets for about USD222 million in first-quarter 2016. Fitch anticipates further noncore asset disposals...
