SAP more ambitious after soaring profits

Berlin - German business software maker SAP lifted its full-year forecasts on Tuesday, as it hailed a lift-off in profits in the first quarter and saw new opportunities after buying a US software firm.

Net profit at SAP surged 33% year-on-year between January and March, from €530m to €708m.

Operating, or underlying, profit booked even stronger growth, adding 52% to top €1.0bn, based on revenues roughly unchanged at €5.3bn.

Sales of SAP's cloud-computing products, which allow customers to manage their data stored on the firm's servers, increased 18% to almost €1.1bn, while sales of licences and support for traditional software products fell 4.0%, to €3.3bn.

"With an increasing share of predictable revenues, our beyond-expectations profitability is cause for even greater shareholder confidence," chief executive Bill McDermott said in a statement.

"Look for SAP to be bolder than ever in markets like customer relationship management."

SAP said in January it hoped to close in the second quarter its acquisition of California-based Callidus Software and its technology for managing firms' interactions with their clients, its first buyout in more than three years.

Looking ahead to the full year, the group aims for a 5.5% increase in revenue to between €24.8bn and €25.3bn - measured using non-IFRS accounting standards, which exclude certain costs.

It had previously targeted a range of €24.6bn to €25.1bn for 2018.

Still in non-IFRS figures, it hopes to boost operating profits around 8.5%, to between €7.35bn and €7.5bn, lifting the bottom end of the range by €50m.