Nairobi, Aug. 12 -- KCB Group has increased its interim dividend by 50 percent to Sh3 per share after reporting a 14.2 percent growth in net profit in the half-year ended June.

The regional lender reported a net profit of Sh36 billion, up from Sh31.5 billion posted in a similar period last year.

Last year, KCB paid an interim dividend of Sh2 per share, which was, however, accompanied by an additional Sh2 per share special payout from the gains realised from the sale of National Bank of Kenya (NBK) to Nigeria's Access Bank.

KCB management said it will comply with its dividend policy of distributing between 35 percent and 50 percent of the bank's annual profit even in the absence of one-off gains such as the NBK sale.

"We did about 32 p...