OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'BBB+' rating on Sociedad Concesionaria Autopista Central S. A.'s (Central) senior secured notes due 2026. The outlook remains stable.

The rating affirmation on Central reflects our expectations that it will continue to post a solid operating and financial performance during the notes' term thanks to high traffic growth rates in the next two years, owing to the continued economic growth and increasing motorization rates. We expect the traffic growth trend to align with the Chilean economy's growth pace in the long term.

The stable outlook on Central incorporates our expectation that it will maintain healthy financial and operating performance amid our expectations of traffic increases that are linked to Chile's GDP growth and motorization rates, which will result in an average DSCR of about 1.9x in 2016 and 1.5x in 2017.

We could lower the rating on the project if traffic volume decreases or if operating costs sharply increase, resulting in a minimum DSCR of less than 1.4x under our base-case scenario.

We could raise the rating if the projected minimum DSCR under our downside scenario surpass 1.10x, given that the rating is currently limited by our downside assessment, most likely due to traffic levels above our expectations.