South Africa's Impala Platinum sees up to 20 pct fall in H1 profits

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Impala Platinum said on Monday it expected half-year profits to fall by as much as 20 percent due to lower rand prices for its main commodity. Headline earnings per share - a measure of profit which strips off certain one-off items - will be between 50 cents and 59 cents, a decline of between 20 percent and 10 percent. Impala, the world No. 2 producer of the metal used for emissions-capping catalytic converters in cars, said the rand prices for platinum are down 15 percent compared to a year earlier causing the decline in profits. Shares in Implats, which have more than halved in value over the last year, fell 0.74 percent to 35 rand by 1500 GMT. (Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by James Macharia)