Toronto-based general merchandise retailer Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. (CTC) has adopted the revised lease accounting standard. As a result, leverage has increased slightly to 3.5x from 3.2x; however, the company's underlying creditworthiness is unchanged. On Aug. 28, 2019, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'BBB+' issuer credit rating on CTC. At the same time, we revised our downgrade leverage threshold to 2.75x from 2.5x and our upgrade leverage threshold to 2.25x from 2.0x. We expect that CTC will improve its financial metrics from its acquisitions as management takes appropriate steps, with leverage improving to the mid 2x area, and funds from operations (FFO)-to-debt in the 25%-30% range in 12-18 months. As of Jan. 1, 2019, CTC adopted the revised International Financial
