Europe’s largest software manufacturer SAP ended a difficult year with a decent final quarter. Earnings before interest and taxes adjusted for special effects were between October and the end of December at EUR 2. 77 billion euros, around 3 percent below the previous year’s value, as SAP surprisingly did in Walldorf on Thursday on the basis of preliminary figures. However, that was significantly better than analysts estimated, because license sales in particular did not fall as sharply in the fourth quarter as feared in the Corona crisis. Total sales fell by 6 percent to 7 54 billion euros. SAP wants the complete financial report on 29. Submit January.

Outlook with moderate goals SAP already provides the outlook for the current year. The management around CEO Christian Klein had already warned in October of the consequences of the pandemic, which should weigh on demand until at least half of the year. SAP now expects that profits from the sale of software subscriptions and licenses 2020 will stagnate or increase by a maximum of 2 percent after adjusting for currency effects. Below this, SAP trusts the fast-growing software for use over the Internet, but growth from 13 to 18 percent to. The management plans adjusted operating profit of 7.8 to 8.2 billion euros – that would be a decrease of between one and 6 percent.

( olb)