Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Azrieli Group's Annual 2022 Conference Call for Foreign Investors. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. With us today are Mr. Eyal Henkin, CEO, and Ms. Irit Sekler-Pilosof, Deputy CEO and CFO. To ask a question during the session, you will need to slowly press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. This conference call will be accompanied by a slide presentation. It can be found on Azrieli, www.azrieligroup.com, on the Investor Relations page under Media Room Presentations, and the financial reports can be found on the website as well.
I would like to remind everyone that forward-looking statements for the respective company's business, financial condition, and results of its operations are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Eyal Henkin, CEO. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining the Azrieli Group Earnings Call Summarizing 2022. This was a very good quarter and a record year in the operative parameters, whether it's NOI or FFO. Based on the last quarter annualized, the NOI is over ILS 2.2 billion. I emphasize that this does not yet include the NOI from significant contracts signed in the data center segment, which will be expressed in the coming two year or two. I'll give more details on that later. FFO in 2022, we recorded ILS 1.3 billion excluding senior housing, which contributes another ILS 100 million- ILS200 million per year. Interest. The Bank of Israel interest continues to increase to 4.25% after several years at 0.1%.
Obviously, the increase in interest increases the input for all companies, but I think that in situations like this, we can appreciate and understand that our low leverage will enable us to be less affected by this process because of two major things. One, all of our debt is at a fixed interest, and 90% of it is linked to the CPI, while almost all NOI of the Azrieli Group is also linked to the CPI, i.e. these two mitigate themselves. It's a closed box. Their leverage is low, 33% net debt to assets ratio, which again give us of our financial solvency. Signed data center contracts in Compass and Green Mountain are not yet expressed in our NOI, which gives us quite an horizon going forward in the coming two-three years. Some words about the macro in Israel.
The Israeli economy grew by 6.5% in 2022, which was a good rate compared with the OECD economies, which on average grew by only 2.8% in 2022. Growth of 2.8% is expected in 2023, while in 2024, it's expected to be 3.5%. Private consumption was up by 7% in 2022, it's expected to increase by 4% per year in the coming two years. In Israel, there was high inflation, when we say high, it's only 5.2%, which was higher than the target but still significantly lower compared to inflation in Europe and the U.S. The debt to GDP ratio was 62%, which is quite a good figure.
The biannual budget was approved by the government around more one month ago, and the unemployment is still low, which is a very important parameter for us. It's still around 4%. In this call, we will review all of our operating segments. I'll start with the segments in Israel. The office segment market is doing well. With a need for spaces in high demand areas despite the changes taking place in the high-tech industry and their impact on the employment market in such field and the repricing of stock and risks in the field. Contract renewals continue to be a positive trend. Examples of contracts or transactions signed in Q4 2022. For example, in Azrieli Tel Aviv, we just signed with a high-tech company 1,400 square meters.
The price per meter for month raised from ILS 123 to ILS 147 per meter. It's 19% increase. We had another high-tech company in Rishon LeZion, almost 800 m, ILS 78 it was in the past, went up to ILS 82. One of the largest banks in Israel, in Holon, 4,000 square meters. rental was ILS 42, went up to ILS 70. Very long-term contract. Our law firms in Tel Aviv, 6,000 square meters, ILS 110 she-.
Please continue to stand by. Your conference will resume shortly.
We renewed that option of 24,000 square meters with an increase of 5%. Regarding the customers, there are existing tenants like law firms and accounting firms whose contracts totaling tens of thousands of square meters, these are being renewed or will be renewed. Again, we're very humble, specifically at this period, but we think they will stay with us. We're experiencing longer negotiations with tenants. We continue on aiming on strong and good customers, we believe that one of our strengths is the customer mix. Some words about high-tech after COVID, two things. One, people are back to the offices. I would say that people work between three-five days, or three minimum to five days a week in the high-tech.
On the other hand, with the turmoil that the high-tech industry went through, there are some. We see some subleasing going on in the market. We don't see yet an impact as a consequence, but there are still some sublessors which are expanding very slowly, but expanding in the market. To summarize, demand is not as we're used to. Decision-making takes time still. Renewals and new contracts with higher rates. We get very strong customers within our portfolio. Regarding malls, the NOI from the segment is ILS 238 million, the highest in the group's history, and an increase of 22% year-over-year.
Even without the NOI of Ayalon Mall, looking only at the same property NOI, we can see an increase of ILS 90 million in the quarter, up 9%. Many thanks to the Azrieli Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Mall, Modi'in, Holon, Givatayim, HaNegev, Rishon LeZion, et cetera. Very nice. Moderate, but very nice and strong lifting of the NOI in all these assets. March through December 2022 compared to March through December 2021. We compare March through December because in 2021, the first quarter up until February 21st was a lockdown. We only start from March. The increase in store revenues was almost 5%, which is very high. This demonstrate the results of the rework that we carried out in the properties, specifically throughout the COVID stage.
We're starting 2023 with a good and solid trajectory, good store revenues, and I would say that we are optimistic about this quarter. Senior housing on track, strong demand. Dozens of contracts have been signed in each of the homes, mainly in Lehavim and Modi'in. 2022 was a good continuation of 2021, which was a strong year as well. We raised prices in 2021 by some 5%, similar to the CPI. In 2022, we signed deposit contracts for 162 apartments in all of the homes and 23 apartments were occupied. In Lehavim we've finished Stage B. Tenants have started moving in, and we have already reached 39% occupancy, with options and contracts close to 53%. Data centers. The data center segment is a significant growth engine for us.
It currently comprises some 17% of the group's operations and 7% of the NOI. The market continues to show strong parameters. There is high demand by tenants, mainly hyperscalers. In the European FLAP-D markets, the new market supply figures and take-up figures seem to be very strong at an annual level of around 400 MW per year. In FLAP-D in Q4, 2022, it was extremely strong, with half of all megawatt leased in 2022 having been leased in this quarter. According to CBRE study, the take-up was 202 MW, which is above the supply of only 184 MW, which represent the excess demand in FLAP-D. Hyperscalers are growing strong at 30% last year. Very high demand. It reflects increase in rents.
Although construction costs are getting higher, the spread is positive. I would say the hyperscalers are doing these days less self-build, so this supports the business of leasing data centers. For Azrieli, Compass in Northern America, we have some impressive growth rates in constructed megawatts. In Europe, Green Mountain is in the midst of interesting negotiations for contracts with hyperscalers. We are working to bring it to other countries, as we did with the acquisition in London and the breakthrough with the TikTok contract, which I'll now discuss. Just about these two companies, our share of NOI is expected to be $172 million, which is ILS 635 million, which is 4.5 x the NOI that we're seeing today from our holdings in Compass in Green Mountain.
This is actually the contracted NOI. In Green Mountain, two weeks ago, we reported a significant transaction for the company, which will establish the hub of TikTok in Europe, which will start with 90 MW. It is already being built, and it is being built in three stages. The first stage is going to be ready by the end of 2023, and it's going to be leased for at least 11 years. The other two are going to be ready by mid-2024, with each having 30 MW deployment in place. We have an option for another 3 MW and another 30 MW, an additional 30 MW, which may bring us to 150 MW in total.
The transaction is expected to produce an annual average NOI for the 90 MW of $79 million, assuming it's full operation of the 90 MW, the total investment in building the project is expected to be some EUR 750 million. Regarding Compass, we increased our holdings from where we've been up to 32.5%, thanks to capital injections, which is actually the maximum we can get. The contracted NOI rate is very high and assumes that these contracts will start to produce income in the coming year. Just about the customers, whether it's Amazon or Google or Microsoft, just to give you some indications. When you look at these companies' EBIT line, one might find that for Amazon, for example, 190% of the EBIT line is AWS.
It means 100% + 90% covering losses of other segments. In Microsoft, it already reached on the EBIT line, the cloud activity to 43%. In Google, which started very late, it's still negative, but it's about to be balanced and go for the positive shortly. About development pipeline, we finished building and have started to occupy the following two projects this year. Multifamily, first multifamily product in Israel. We finished it in August, and it's moving very well. The other one is Lehavim Stage B. 110 residents, which, as I said, more than 50% are already leased.
In 2023, we'll have the Lot 21 in Modi'in, which is a full multi-use complex, and another fully leased for 25 years commercial area in the north near Haifa. In the Spiral Tower, we have reached the ground floor and we're starting to go up with the building. From here, I'm going to hand it over to Irit, who will review the financial parameters.
Good afternoon to you all. I will now review the main operating parameters in the 2022 financial statements and discuss the statements highlights on annual level. In 2022, reflect the company's continued excellent results. The NOI in 2022 was ILS 1,953 million, compared with ILS 1,590 million in 2021. This was an increase of ILS 363 million, which is 23% increase in the results of this year compared with 2021. The malls segment contributed ILS 211 million to the NOI increase, among others, because 2021 included a waiver on rent and management fees during the COVID lockdown.
The office segment contributed ILS 71 million to the increase, mainly from organic growth. The data center segment contributed around ILS 80 million to the increase, mainly due to the acquisition of Green Mountain in the third quarter of 2021. The same property NOI in 2022 includes, excludes from the NOI, the results of both Mall Hayam and, among others, the results of Green Mountain, which was acquired in August 2021. The company's FFO totaled ILS 1,360 million in 2022, compared with ILS 1,318 million in 2021. The increase mainly derives from the increase in NOI, net of the rise in the management, marketing, and interest expenses. The company is building a future growth engine by investing in data centers.
The yield will be expressed in the NOI in the coming months, while the growth in financing expenses and G&A is already expressed and eroding the increase in NOI. Please note that in the presentation that was published, you can find current data on the volume of lease agreements which were signed in data center segment and are still under construction, as well as data on the expected NOI generation by quarter over the next two years. In 2022, the cash flow from resident deposits in the senior housing, which was included in the FFO, was approximately ILS 81 million lower than in 2021. In view of the high occupancy rates of first-time occupancy of apartments last year, we are pleased that we currently have extremely high occupancy rates and as a result, have a smaller number of apartments that are marketed for first occupancy.
At the end of the quarter, the total value of the group's real estate properties is around ILS 39 billion. In the report period, we invested around ILS 3.5 billion in the acquisition and further development of income-producing properties and properties under development, including purchasing the Mall Hayam in Eilat and closing the purchase of land in Herzliya for the construction of the SolarEdge Campus. Depreciation in respect of fair value adjustments during 2022 totaled around ILS 1.5 billion, and derived mainly from a revaluation of the properties in Israel due to the increase in rent prices. The company's net debt is around ILS 16 billion, which is around 33% of the total assets. The company is very financially robust and has around ILS 33 billion in unencumbered assets, in addition to cash balance and deposits totaling ILS 3.4 billion.
During 2022, the company's performed around ILS 3 billion expansion of three of its bond series, with an average duration of 8.1 years and an average linked interest of 2%. Around 83% of the company's debt is CPI-linked marketable bonds in Israel, with an average duration of 6.5 years and an average interest rate of around 1.7%. According to the current trading data, the interest rate for debt raising at a similar average duration will be around 1% higher than the company's average interest rate in Israel. Our current ranges are still very comfortable for debt raising.
This is while the average cap rate of the company's property is around 6.8%. Such that the spread between the average interest rate expenses and the cap rate is 5%, which is highly rate by all accounts, and which enables company to absorb the marginal increase in their interest expenses to the extent that such interest rates will remain in the near future. The net income from 2022 totaled around ILS 1.8 billion, compared with ILS 2.9 billion in 2021. The decrease mainly derived from the NOI increase, net of decrease in profits from fair value adjustments, and an increase in financing expenses, which mainly derives from the linkage differentials on the debt. The equity attributed to the shareholders totaled ILS 22.1 billion at the end of 2022.
The company's board of directors approved a distribution of dividend of ILS 700 million, which continues the trend of increasing the dividend amounts of previous years, and is reflecting around ILS 5.77 per share. We will move to the Q&A session.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and one. We will take our first question. Please stand by. Your first question comes from the line of Charles Boissier from UBS. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Yes, hi, good afternoon. Thank Thank you for taking my question. Two questions on my side. The first one is on offices. I think Eyal, you mentioned that the turmoil in the tech market is affecting the office condition, and overall comment sounded slightly less positive than historically. You mentioned also some subleasing taking place in the office market. May I check what is your expectation in term of rental conditions and occupancy for the rest of 2023? Thank you.
Okay. Hi, Charles Boissier. Thank you for the question. I would say that. I'll put it this way. In the recent 18 months, the rates went up significantly, I would say, 20% to 30% up. I'll say that I don't expect this to continue within the coming year. What I would expect is, you know, all the contracts which are being opened, which will be aligned with the new rentals or the new numbers that are in place today. I don't expect, I would say the market to go up again in these figures or in other words, I would say that it's either will be stable or maybe a little bit positive trajectory in terms of prices. That's how we see it.
Okay, thank you. My second question is for Irit Sekler-Pilosof on the financing side. Last quarter, you mentioned that LTV is still very low, and after the development pipeline, probably LTV would go from 33% to 35% to 40%. As interest rates have been going up, as you mentioned also, the debt is 90% linked to CPI. Would you consider an alternative scenario where maybe you would do a bit more on the disposal side to keep leverage at this comfortable level? Thank you.
Yeah, Charles, I can tell you that you are right. Our net debt to balance today is 33%. We assume it will be increased because of all the projects that are construction, including the data centers. I don't assume it will be more than 30%. Regarding disposal, this is, of course, everything is always opened, but I can tell you that we are far from this option since we are in a very low leverage already.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you do wish to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. There seems to be no further questions at this time. We'll hand it back for closing remarks.
Okay, thank you. I would summarize as following. The group is making strong progress in all of the operating parameters in all segments, offices, malls, and continuing in senior housing, of course, data centers. We perform full occupancy rates, NOI footfall, which is growing double digits, and store revenues in our malls. We focus on the development of our core businesses. In parallel, we are working on the growth engines, and we had a breakthrough this year with the data center segment in terms of contracts with a TikTok contract. We believe in the data center segment. We believe data is growing exponentially. We think it's the right time in the market of development with high margins, massive growth, and the strongest customers in the world.
Despite the increase in yields, the contracts are very low and long and sticky. In a world driven by technology, still technology, it only accelerates the need to increase storage space, all leading to data centers. I would summarize that we are proud of our business and financial results. We work forward both cautiously and conservatively with the uncertainty in the markets. Thank you very much for listening, and we will see you in the first quarter of 2023. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.