Glenn Gary Cohen
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Kimco Realty
Thanks, Ross, and good morning. We had another very productive quarter, highlighted by the strong leasing activity that Conor walked through as well as positive same-site NOI growth. In addition, we have further improved our leverage metrics and extended our debt maturity profile while maintaining a high level of liquidity. While we can't predict the future as it relates to stubborn inflation and continuing rising interest rates, so far, consumers and our retailers are weathering the impact.
Now for some details on our third quarter results. FFO was $254.5 million or $0.41 per diluted share for the third quarter 2022. This compares favorably to the $173.7 million or $0.32 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2021, which included $47 million or $0.08 per diluted share related to Weingarten merger expenses. The increase in FFO, excluding the Weingarten merger-related costs, was primarily driven by higher pro rata NOI of $42.4 million, with $32.4 million contributed from the Weingarten acquisition.
The NOI increase also included $13.7 million from core portfolio growth, $4 million from other net acquisition disposition activity and $2 million from lease termination fees. The NOI increase was offset by the $9.1 million change in credit loss due to the significant level of credit loss reversals recorded in 2021. It is important to call out through the first three quarters of 2022, we have recognized $7.4 million of credit loss income from reversals of prior year reserves.
In terms of interest expense, although it was only $700,000 higher, it includes a onetime $7 million benefit from the acceleration of the fair market debt amortization from the early repayment of two Weingarten bonds during the quarter. Altogether, we derived approximately $0.02 of FFO benefit in the third quarter that will not carry forward. Our operating portfolio delivered positive same-site NOI growth of 3.1%, which includes a 10 basis point benefit from our redevelopment projects.
If we excluded the impact of credit loss and abatements, the same-site NOI growth would have been 5.7% for the third quarter. This is an excellent result as we were comping against a 12.1% level last year. The minimum rent component contributed 480 basis points. Lower abatements added 90 basis points, and higher percentage rent added another 60 basis points.
These increases were offset by the significant level of credit loss reversals recorded in the prior year quarter. Turning to the balance sheet. During the quarter, we issued a new $650 million 4.6% unsecured bond, which is scheduled to mature in 2033. The proceeds, along with cash on hand, were used to repay all our remaining unsecured debt due in 2022 and 2023, totaling $902 million with coupons ranging from 3.125% to 3.5%.
We also paid off $46 million of mortgage debt during the quarter. These actions enabled us to proactively address all our near-term refinancing risk. Importantly, our weighted average debt maturity profile now stands at 9.7 years. We finished the third quarter with look-through net debt-to-EBITDA of 6.3 times, which includes our pro rata share of joint venture debt and our perpetual preferred issuances.
This is the lowest leverage level we have ever reported since we began disclosing this metric over a decade ago. Further, this ratio does not include any benefit from our Albertsons investment, which had a value of just under $1 billion at quarter end. Our liquidity was approximately $2 billion at the end of the quarter, comprised of nearly $1.9 billion available on our revolving credit facility and $124 million in cash.
Subsequent to quarter end, we sold 11.5 million shares of our Albertsons stock, receiving $301 million in proceeds. Based on the capital gain of approximately $250 million, we expect to pay approximately $61 million in capital gains tax, which would net Kimco approximately $240 million which can be used for accretive investments and further debt reduction.
As a side note, to the extent the company pays federal tax on this capital gain, our shareholders will have an opportunity to receive a credit for their pro rata share of the tax the company has paid. We will provide more details on this as we approach year-end. Based on our strong year-to-date results and our expectations for the fourth quarter, we are again increasing our 2022 FFO per share guidance range to $1.57 to $1.59 from the previous range of $1.54 to $1.57.
This new guidance range takes into account the onetime benefits we derived during the year, higher interest expense from our debt refinancing completed during the third quarter and the reduction in debt fair market value amortization, credit loss for the fourth quarter of $0 to $1 million, positive same-site NOI growth and the impact of the Albertsons monetization discussed earlier.
As we have in the past, we plan to provide our 2023 outlook when we report our fourth quarter results. That said, given the ever-changing global economic landscape, we want to provide some perspective for the coming year. Based on our current total debt stack, we expect interest expense to be $24 million higher in 2023. This is the result of the reduction in the fair market value adjustment associated with the Weingarten bonds recently paid off, higher interest rates from the refinancing we have completed and higher SOFR rate.
We recognized $7.4 million of income from credit loss reversals this year, which we do not expect to continue in 2023. Instead, we will likely revert towards historic norms with an initial credit loss expectation of 75 to 100 basis points to revenues given the uncertain macro environments. In 2022, we had about $0.03 per diluted share of onetime items that we don't expect to repeat in 2023.
Moving on to our dividend. Based on our strong third quarter results and increased guidance range, our Board of Directors has again raised the quarterly cash dividend for the fourth consecutive quarter to a new level of $0.23 per common share. This represents an increase of 4.5% from the previous level of $0.22 per common share and 35.3% over the $0.17 per common share paid a year ago.
We continued to maintain a dividend distribution level in line with estimated taxable income from recurring operations and retain over $200 million of free cash flow annually after dividends and capex. These amounts do not include the benefits from our partial monetization of Albertsons stock or dividend proceeds we expect to receive from the announced Albertsons special dividend, which we are scheduled to receive on November seven totaling $194 million.
Upon receipt, we expect to declare a special dividend comprised of either cash or a combination of cash and common stock before year-end to satisfy the REIT distribution requirements and retain as much cash as possible for future investment and debt reduction. Lastly, I would like to again acknowledge the efforts and commitment from the entire Kimco team and all they do to create shareholder value. And now we are ready to take your questions.