Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Azrieli Group Q3 2022 conference call for foreign investors. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers' 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'll need to slowly press star one and then one on your telephone. You will 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 site, www.azrieligroup.com on the investor relations page and the media room. Presentations and the financial report can also be found on the website.
I would like to remind everyone that forward-looking statements for the respected 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 would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Eyal Henkin, CEO. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you, and good afternoon. Thank you for joining the Azrieli Group earnings call summarizing the third quarter. This was a record quarter in the operating parameters with good business environment up until now. A couple of points that I would like to make. One, the annual NOI rate based on the last quarter annualized is over ILS 2 billion, which is a good sign for the company. 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 year or two. Mall Hayam, on which we closed the deal on July third, and ownership of the property has been transferred to us, started to contribute to the NOI for almost the entire quarter at an annual rate of more than ILS 90 million.
Point number two, I would like to talk about the mix. The mix of contributions reflects investments in the development of the new growth engines, whether it's offices, senior housing, and of course, the data centers. Third point, interest rates. The Bank of Israel interest rate increased to 3.25% after several years at 0.1%. Obviously, the increase in interest increases the inputs 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. One, all of our debt is at fixed interest. Second, the leverage is very low, 33% LTV. The average duration of the debt is long, is more than 6 years.
The 4th point I would like to make is that the signed data center contracts are what we call contracted EBITDA. Compass and Green Mountain are going up with very long-term contracts and very good or the strongest, I would say, customers in the world. Some words about the Israeli economy. The Israeli economy to this stage is functioning well, much better than any relative economy in the OECD. In this quarter, Israel's GDP increased by 2.1% compared with the previous quarter, and 5.8% compared with the equivalent quarter in 2021. The private consumption expenditure increased by 5.6% in the quarter compared with the equivalent quarter in 2021. The updated growth forecasts for the Israeli economy are 6% for 2022 and 3% growth in 2023.
I will now review some of our working spaces where I start with data centers. The data center segment is a significant growth engine for us and currently co-comprises some 15% of the group's operations. This quarter, it contributed ILS 35 million, which is approximately $10 million, which is our share in the existing NOI, which is annualized, it's $40 million or more than ILS 100 million, even prior to the signed contracts, both in North America and in Europe. We feel that the market continues to show strong parameters and high demand by the tenants, mainly by the hyperscalers.
For example, in the European FLAP D markets, Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, the new market supply figures, and take-up figures seem to be very strong. At an annual level of 400 MW in 2021, with a similar focus for 2022. Just to give some figures from the recent CBRE research made on Q3 2022. In 2021, the new supply was 404 MW. Take-up was almost 390 MW. In 2022, the projections is more than 360 megawatts, and take-up of at least 380 MW. The balance or the supply and demand is something that at the end of the day, both increases the lease prices and provides the grounds for much more development, which is the place where the yields are coming from.
Just to review some numbers about the hyperscalers. If I go to the major 3 ones, whether it's Amazon, Google or Microsoft. Amazon revenues was more than $20 billion in Q3 2022 for AWS. This is an increase quarter-on-quarter, 27%. For Google, the increase was 38%, and for Microsoft, the increase was 26.5% quarter-on-quarter. For AWS, out of the total Amazon revenues, the revenues for cloud is 16%. Then, Microsoft, 38.6%. While on the EBIT line, actually, the cloud funded the losses of other traditional operations, and they contributed $5.6 billion, while the EBIT line of all of Amazon was $2.5 billion, which is 200% or more than 200% of the EBIT line of Amazon. The cloud operations in Microsoft, as I said, it was 38.6% out of the revenue line, but it's responsible for 41% of the operating income.
Our conclusion, we see in fact in the market, these giants' growth engine is for the coming years, is cloud and continuing to be cloud. Taking all of this cloud, it needs to be stored in servers. These three servers have to be somewhere, which is, for us, real estate, which is data centers where you store, process, and transmit the data. In other traditional segments in Azrieli, the offices, the market is still good and demand is still strong, despite the changes taking place in the high-tech industry and their impact on the employment market in this field and the repricing of stock and risks in the field. Contract renewals continue to be on a positive trend, and you can see it on the same property on the offices. Some examples to exemplify what's going on here.
On our assets, a number of contracts that we had this quarter in Sarona, which is 100% occupied, but there were some tenants that left the building and some tenants within the building who extended their footprint. We had 5,500 square meters that were renewed. 80% of this was 1 deal from ILS 140 per square meter. It raised to ILS 213 per square meter. The left, the other, 750 square meters, ILS 123 per square meter. It raised to ILS 160 per square meter. The demand is still there. On the other end, we're cautious. In Azrieli, Tel Aviv, again, it's 100% leased. We had Alibaba leaving Israel. It had half of the floor of the triangle building. We had 170 square meters in ILS 126 per square meter, and it was occupied by an adjacent customer with ILS 160 per square meter.
We still have a good demand in terms of growth. On the other end, we're very cautious and hands-on, both with the customers and both with the new leasing in place. Just about SolarEdge, I remind you that we're building a new building dedicated for SolarEdge. The project is online and on the time. It's going to be 40,000 sq m, which are going to be launched March 2025 for many years with this great company. Malls, we had a very, I would say, record quarter with the malls. The NOI from this segment, we enjoyed ILS 236 million, which is an increase of 21% quarter-over-quarter.
Even without the NOI of Mall Hayam, which is the new mall in Eilat, and looking only at the same property NOI, we can see an increase of ILS 18 million, which is up 9%, and occupancy where we started the parallel quarter with 99% occupancy, and we're still in this 99%. We enjoyed a 9% increase in NOI, mainly thanks to the Azrieli Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ayalon and Givatayim malls. The new Mall Hayam contributes as a force in more than ILS 90 million annually to the NOI, and we started with this mall this quarter. Footfall in the malls is up 15% compared to 2021. This is for the same property. Quarter-over-quarter, store revenues increased by 8.1%, demonstrating the results of the rework that we carried out in the properties.
Regarding senior housing, on track and strong demand. Dozens of contracts have been signed in each of the homes, mainly in Lehavim and Modi'in since the beginning of the year and during last year, which was a very strong year, with Tel Aviv and Ra'anana maintaining almost full occupancy rates. In Lehavim, we finished and delivered stage B. Tenants have started moving in with 45 units signed out of the 109 units in this second stage. We're starting the pilot of residential rentals, what is called globally multifamily. There's a very nice demand to this project in Tel Aviv. Actually, today, there are no multifamily buildings of this sort in Israel, and we keep it under central and high-standard management, which we could experience very high resident satisfaction, and dozens of contracts have been signed in this project and continuing to be signed.
Regarding development, in 2023, we expect to complete Modi'in Lot 21 and Checkpost project in Haifa. All other projects are moving as planned, with no material changes. From here, I'm going to hand over to Irit, who will review the financial parameters in the, in the quarter.
Thank you. Good afternoon to you all. The third quarter is an indication of stability further to the company's growth. The NOI in Q3 was around ILS 530 million compared with ILS 428 million year-over-year. The increase of ILS 85 million constitutes a 20% increase in the NOI. The retail segment contribution to the increase was very significant and totaled approximately ILS 31 million. ILS 23 million derived from the acquisition of the Mall Hayam in Eilat, and the balance of ILS 18 million derived from organic growth of same properties. Approximately ILS 17 million derived from an increase in the office segment, which was also due to organic growth in higher rent at same properties.
Approximately ILS 3 million derived from the increase in the senior housing segment, mainly due to increased occupancy in the Modi'in Home and in Lehavim Stage A, and them reaching full occupancy. Approximately ILS 28 million derived from an increase in the data center segment, mainly in view of the acquisition of the Norwegian company, Green Mountain. The US offices segment is still showing no signs of recovery, and its negative contribution to the NOI was approximately ILS 4 million year-over-year. The same property, NOI, in the quarter present a similar trend to the NOI, and the gap between them actually mainly stems from discounting the operating results of Green Mountain, which was acquired in August 2021, and discounting the Mall Hayam in Eilat, which was acquired in July 2022.
The company's FFO totaled ILS 330 million in the quarter, compared with ILS 357 million year-over-year. The decrease mainly derived from a big boost in the same quarter from the marketing of apartment in the senior homes for the first time, while now actively, we are left with more limited number of apartments which have not yet been marketed. Therefore, the volume of deposits we are receiving from residents is stabilizing. The FFO net of the impact of senior housing increased by ILS 6 million year-over-year as the company builds its future growth engine and invest in data center. 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.
At the end of the quarter, the total value of the group's real estate properties was around ILS 38 billion. In the report period, we invested ILS 2.6 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. The appreciation in respect of fair value adjustment during the quarter derived mainly from the revaluation of the properties in Israel due to the impact of the CPI increase of rent prices. During the quarter, we increased our holdings in Compass from 24% to approximately 32% at a bargain price, which was stipulated in the original purchase agreement from 2019.
This increase yielded us revenues of approximately ILS 204 million, which are included in the other income item. The company's net debt is ILS 15.5 billion, which is around 33% of its total assets. The company is very financially robust and has around ILS 32 billion in unencumbered assets, in addition to cash balance and deposits totaling approximately ILS 3.7 billion. During the quarter, the company performed an 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%. I would like to take a few moments to discuss the issue of the impact of the increased market interest rate. Approximately 90% of the company's debt is CPI-linked loans in Israel, with an average duration of 6.3 years.
Recent trading figures shows that Azrieli's interest for financing today with similar duration will be higher by only 0.5% compared to the average interest today. We are still in a convenient environment for raising capital in the capital market. This is while the average cap rate of the company's properties is approximately 6.7%, such that the spread between the average interest rate expenses and the cap rate is high, at approximately 4.7%, and give us a lot of patience. The net income for quarter, approximately ILS 330 million compared with ILS 187 million last quarter. The increase mainly derived from the increase in NOI, increase in profits from fair value adjustments due to the increase in the CPI, and profit registered from the increase in the holdings in Compass.
All net of an increase in financing expenses, which mainly derives from linkage differentials on the debt. We will move to the Q&A portion.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to slowly press star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Once again, please press slowly star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please press star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The question comes from the line of Charles Boissier from UBS. Please ask your question.
Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first on Compass, where you mentioned you increased your stake by exercising the option that you were granted in 2019, so now you have 33% stake. Would you consider buying more of this company? Obviously, the price would not be the same as agreed back in 2019. If the other shareholders were interested in selling their stake. The second question is, do you have a target loan to value for the company? Thank you.
The second was what's the target in terms of loan to value?
Yes.
When you say the company is Azrieli or Compass?
Yeah, sorry. Azrieli, yeah.
Azrieli. Okay. I would leave the leverage issue to Irit, I'll say about Compass. First of all, as you said, yes, we don't have the option of exercising the purchase of the company based on the original share price, more than 33%, we're done there. We're planning to expand in the data center space, whether through Compass or other opportunities. I would just say that the option of our partners, which are RedBird and the OTPP, PE, for going to the market and selling their stake is going to be available starting Q1 next year, 2023. There is an option there, again, whether they sell, how much they sell, and whether the price is good for us, it's absolutely an option.
On the contrary, if the price is very high, it's an option for us to sell as well. This is what. Regarding the LTV, I would let Irit answer you.
Yeah. Hello, Charles. Thank you for your question.
Hi, Irit. Yeah.
Hi. Regarding the leverage, you can see that in our current report, the net debt to balance is around 33%. You can see that we have quite a huge amount as a cash in our cash flow. It's around ILS 3.7 billion. After investing this amount, and of course, investing it very wisely, we will be in a situation that our leverage will be around 35%-40%. Again, we will have profit, so everything is going to impact our balance sheet. I assume that this number is something that we can expect.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions or comment, please press star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We are now going to proceed with the next question. The question comes from the line of Boudewijn Schoon from Aegon Asset Management . Please ask the question.
Yeah, good afternoon. I was just curious. I mean, many companies have a slide on, for example, their ESG efforts. Where would you stand with respect to greenhouse gas footprint mitigation or adopting certain carbon pathways? Is that something which is part of the strategy of the company, or is that more something for tomorrow? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for the question. First of all, we usually have it on the annual investors presentation. We have a full ESG report in our website, in the Azrieli Group website. I would say the following. First of all, Azrieli is by far in Israel, the leading real estate company in terms of ESG, I'll say treatment, focus approach in the investments. This is one thing. We have quite a number of projects in terms of ESG. We build our buildings, all our buildings are LEED, from gold to platinum, and we are now transferring the old buildings into LEED gold as well, and our, I would say, operations into LEED operations. We've done it now in the first building in the Azrieli Center. We're moving forward with the second and third buildings here. This is about ESG here.
The second thing is that one of our reasons for buying Green Mountain is the fact that Green Mountain has 100% real green data centers. When I say real, it's not that they buy credits, it's actual green electricity, whether hydro or wind, which is very abundant in Norway. Yes, we have the reports. We have, you know, we recruited people. We have a full team here, both under construction and operations. We invest by far more than any other real estate company in Israel today. I'll just say on the flip side that I think Israel is a couple of steps behind at least what's going on in Europe. Not the US, but in Europe. In Israel, at least we're trying to keep the pace or more than this in order to close any barriers that we have. This is my answer.
Thanks. That's helpful. Thank you.
We have no further questions at this time. I will now hand the conference back to Mr. Eyal Henkin for closing remarks. Thank you.
Okay. To summarize, we keep focusing, we're developing, and we're growing our core businesses. This is how we start the day. I think the parameters are very strong, and we are very proud of it. The group is making strong progress in all of the operating and financial parameters, whether it's in the office segments, malls, continuing with senior housing, from occupancy rates through NOI, traffic, store revenues in the malls, et cetera. We continue our accelerated development momentum with around 1 million square meters under construction, and we strongly believe in the data center segment, developing the companies, increase our holdings in them, and entering into new markets.
We think it's the right time in a market of development with high margins, massive growth, and the strongest customers in the world, with very long and sticky contracts in a world driven by data that only accelerates the need to increase storage space, all leading to data centers development. Thank you very much for listening. We'll see you in the next quarter. Have a nice evening. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.