1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
IranIsrael-Hamas warUkraine

Profits on target

January 10, 2014

Despite sizeable losses inflicted by unfavorable euro exchange rates, German business software maker SAP was able to boost sales and profits in 2013. Its cloud computing services enjoyed especially high demand.

https://p.dw.com/p/1AolT
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

SAP's underlying operating profit soared 10 percent to a total of 4.47 billion euros ($6.1 billion) in 2013, the German business software giant announced Friday as it released preliminary full-year figures.

The rise in profit came on the back of 4 percent higher revenues which jumped to 16.8 billion euros, the firm said. Profits, however, would have been even higher if they hadn't been reduced by a strong euro which dented earnings in Asia, notably in Japan, it added.

Sales were strong specifically in SAP's core business software division, the firm said, climbing by 11 percent to an exchange rate-adjusted 14 billion euros. In addition, revenue from SAP's cloud computing services had grown stronger than expected, adding 787 million euros to the result.

Cloud Computing - Opportunities and Risks

"We are one of the few technology firms in the world which have successfully mastered the switch to cloud computing," SAP's co-Chief Executives Bill McDermot and Jim Hagemann Snabe said in a statement.

That meant that SAP's full-year earnings target for 2013 had been achieved, they added. Stock markets, however, apparently had expected a higher result. SAP shares plunged 1.3 percent at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Friday.

uhe/kms (Reuters, AFP, dpa)