WALLDORF, Germany (Reuters) – SAP raised its revenue and profit outlook on Tuesday as new co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein delivered a solid first set of quarterly results at the leading provider of business software.
Europe’s most valuable technology company now expects adjusted operating profit to grow by between 8% and 13% in 2020, while confirming its longer-term ambition of achieving 35 billion euros ($38.8 billion) in revenue in 2023.
Non-IFRS operating profit is forecast to reach 8.9-9.3 billion euros this year while revenue is expected to gain 6-8% to 29.2-29.7 billion euros, implying a pickup in profitability.
“We have great expectations for continued efficiency gains and expansion of our profitability in 2020,” said Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic. At the mid-point, margins would increase by 120 basis points to 30.9% in 2020, compared to an 80 basis point gain last year, he told reporters.
In the fourth quarter, non-IFRS operating margin at constant currency was 35.2%, up a percentage point from a year earlier, and just above a median forecast of 35% in a poll of analysts by Vara Research.
Long-time CEO Bill McDermott stood down last October after a decade, handing the task to Morgan and Klein of completing SAP’s transition away from running software at customer sites to hosting its services at remote datacenters.
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