Chilean retailer Cencosud files for $718 million U.S. IPO

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(Global Markets) - Chilean multi-brand retailer Cencosud S.A. CEN.SN filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $718 million in an initial public offering of its American Depository Shares.

The company in March won shareholders' approval for the issue of American Depositary Receipts as part of a previously approved capital increase of up to 270 million shares.

Cencosud will join 11 other Chilean companies currently trading ADRs. Bank CorpBanca (BCA.N) COB.SN in late 2003 was the last Chilean company to list in New York.

The diversified retailer, which is listed on the Santiago Stock Exchange, the Bolsa Electronica de Chile and the Valparaiso Stock Exchange under the symbol "CENCOSUD," intends to list its ADSs on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CNCO."

Cencosud, which has operations in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, plans to use the proceeds to repay debt and acquire the remaining 38.6 percent of shares of its subsidiary Jumbo Retail Argentina S.A. currently held by UBS AG London.

J.P. Morgan Securities and UBS Securities are acting as the lead underwriters and joint book-running managers of the offering.

The filing did not reveal the number of ADSs the company planned to sell or their expected price.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

(Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)