Illovo, a unit of Associated British Foods , said headline EPS dropped to 106.5 cents, weighed down by a higher effective tax rate.

Headline earnings are the main profit gauge in South Africa and strip certain once-off, financial and non-trading items.

First half cash operating profit rose by 39 percent to 862.3 million rand ($116.2 million), and revenue rose 27 percent to 8.6 billion rand.

"Due to the full recognition of tax allowances in Zambia in the prior year, the effective rate of taxation has normalised at 30 percent, as compared to 19 percent in the same period last year," the company said in a statement.

Illovo, which has interests in Zambia, Swaziland, Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali said production had increased in all its operations, with total output for the group this year expected at around 1.78 million tonnes, about 200,000 tonnes more than the previous year.

The company declared an interim dividend of 32 cents per share and said it expected full year headline earnings per share to be between 10-20 percent lower than the previous year due to the impact of its 3 billion rand rights issue.

(Reporting by Muchena Zigomo)