South African furniture and clothing group Steinhoff International , which wants to buy Britain's Home Retail, on Monday reported a 67 percent rise in half-year operating profit, boosted by growth in the discount market in Africa and Europe.

Frankfurt-listed Steinhoff, which makes its furniture mostly in developing countries and sells it to budget-conscious consumers in Europe, said its operating profit before capital items rose 67 percent to 802 million euros ($873 million) in the six months to end-December.

"The strong development in the reporting period was mainly due to the above-market growth in the discount market especially in Steinhoff's key regions Europe and Africa," the company said.

Steinhoff, which is battling with Britain's Sainsbury's to buy Home Retail, said it sees the positive growth in the discount segment of the market continuing for the rest of the financial year.

The group, which bought clothing retailer Pepkor last year in a $5.7 billion deal, increased its revenue by 47 percent to 6.7 billion euros, but announced last week it could cut around 4,000 jobs at its South African furniture retail unit JD Group.

$1 = 0.9189 euros