JOHANNESBURG- (Reuters) – South African food producer RCL Foods reported a 65.4% drop in annual headline earnings on Monday, as the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown impacted its final quarter.

The owner of Rainbow chicken and maker of Selati sugar said its headline earnings per share (HEPS) fell to 114.2 million rand ($6.89 million) for the year to June 30 from 329.5 million rand a year earlier.

HEPS strips out some one-off items the main profit gauge used in South Africa.

Despite a loss of 959 million rand for the period, the group declared a final gross cash dividend of 10 cents, bringing the total dividend declared for the year to 25.0 cents.

($1 = 16.5740 rand)