Kuwait's Burgan Bank, the commercial banking arm of Kuwait Projects Company (Kipco), posted a more than ten-fold increase in its first quarter net profit.

Net income in the three months to March 31 came in at KD11.8 million ($42.92 million), from KD1.06 million in the year-earlier period, Burgan said in a statement on the Kuwaiti bourse website on Wednesday. It did not give a reason for the profit surge.

Last year, the lender raised $400 million in a heavily oversubscribed sale of 7.875 per cent 10-year bonds. The proceeds would be used to strengthen Burgan's local operations and expansion plans, it had said.

Burgan's shares were up 1.8 per cent at 0730 GMT after the results were released.-Reuters