National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has reported a net profit of $514 million (KD144.8 million) for the first half of 2014 compared with $456 million (KD128.5 million) for the same period in 2013, growing 12.6 percent year-on-year.

As of end of June 2014, NBK Group’s total assets reached $71.1 billion (KD20 billion) up 11.7 percent compared to June 2013, while total shareholders’ equity increased by 5.3 percent year-on-year to $8.9 billion (KD2.52 billion). Customer loans and advances reached $40 billion (KD11.3 billion) as of end of June 2014, growing at 9.6 percent year-on-year, while customer deposits grew by 7.7 percent for the same period to reach $38.7 billion (KD10.9 billion).

NBK asset quality remained exceptionally strong with NPLs/gross loans improving to 1.81 percent as of end of June 2014 and NPL coverage reaching 229.6 percent.

Isam Al-Sager, NBK’s group CEO, said: “With net profits growing at 12.6 percent year-on-year, NBK continues delivering solid results. NBK’s conservative management practices and its strong financial position helped the bank sustain its profitability and resilient market position.”

Al-Sager highlighted that the operating environment in Kuwait continues to show strong signs of improvement, reflecting a pickup in economic activity and accordingly better banking sector performance.

“There is a noticeable improvement in the process of tendering, award and execution of the large infrastructure projects, which has also reflected positively on the overall private sector sentiment and accordingly on banks’ credit growth. This is a trend we hope will continue,” Al-Sager added.

“NBK continued to focus on core banking activities in and outside Kuwait as the main driver of income growth. In the H1 2014, net operating income grew 6.2 percent year-on-year to $1,177 million (KD331.7 million),” Al-Sager added.