On a roll: SAP's strong double-digit growth in cloud and software revenue was driven by results in mature markets.
FRANKFURT: SAP, Europe's biggest software maker, reported a 19% rise in third-quarter operating profit, excluding special items due to growth in its mature markets.
SAP said third-quarter operating profit, excluding special items, rose to 1.62bil euros (RM7.6bil), beating the most optimistic estimate among 14 analysts, with individual estimates ranging from 1.45bil euros (RM6.9bil) to 1.59bil euros (RM7.57bil), according to Thomson Reuters data.
Europe's largest software maker said it was sticking to its outlook for the full year for non-IFRS operating profit of 5.6bil euros (RM26.6bil) to 5.9bil euros (RM28.1bil) at constant currencies, which represents flat growth to a rise of as much as 5% from 5.6bil euros (RM26.6bil) last year.
"Our strong double-digit growth in cloud and software revenue was mainly driven by excellent results in mature markets," SAP's chief financial officer Luka Mucic said in a statement, adding that he expected continued volatility and economic challenges in emerging markets.
SAP, whose customers include the world's biggest multinationals, specialises in business applications ranging from accounting to human resources to supply-chain management.
Like established rivals such as Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, SAP is striving to boost Internet-based sales to head off fast-growing newer competitors such as Workday and Amazon.com's web software unit.
SAP said its cloud subscriptions and support revenue more than doubled to 600mil euros (RM2.8bil) in the third quarter.
Third-quarter total revenue of 4.98bil euros (RM23.7bil) was slightly ahead of the average expectation of 4.93bil euros (RM23.5bil).
SAP released its key results ahead of the scheduled release data on Oct 20. — Reuters
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