National Bank of Kuwait, the emirate's largest lender, said Tuesday its second quarter net profit rose 9.9 percent on the back of faster project implementation.

NBK posted net profit of 66.9 million dinars ($221.5 million/199.5 million euros) compared with 60.85 million dinars ($201.5 million) in the year-earlier quarter.

First-half net profit increased 12.8 percent to 163.4 million dinars ($541 million) from 144.8 million dinars ($479.5 million) a year ago.

NBK said first-quarter profit included one-off gains of $75 million resulting from the sale of a 30 percent stake in the International Bank of Qatar.

NBK chairman Nasser al-Sayer attributed the performance partly to Kuwait's a fast pace of awarding projects.

"We see acceleration in the process of tendering, award and execution of the large infrastructure projects which reflected positively on NBK's operational income and loan growth," Sayer said.

Assets grew by 14.6 percent as on June 30 to $76 billion from a year earlier, while shareholders' equity rose 6.0 percent to $8.8 billion.

NBK has around 170 branches in several Arab cities, as well as further afield, including New York, London, Paris and Geneva.