SAP increases revenues, profits
The enterprise business software maker reports improved second-quarter numbers, citing favorable response to products and foreign currency exchange rates.
SAP, a German-based company, is also planning to list its shares on a U.S. exchange in late 1998.
Profits, excluding taxes, rose to $230 million, up 56 percent for the quarter. SAP was able to keep growth in costs at 50 percent, slightly below its revenue growth rate, squeezing out higher profits.
"In light of our the positive market environment we are confident that our 1997 sales will exceed the 25 to 30 percent increase projected at the beginning of the year," said Dietmar Hopp, a company spokesman, in a statement. "We do, however, expect growth to taper off in the second half of the year due to last year's high baseline figures."
The software giant reported quarterly revenues of $786 million for the quarter, up 52 percent from a year ago.
Sales in the Americas rose 85 percent to $570 million in the first six months of the year, driven by a favorable dollar to deutsche mark exchange rate.
In Germany, the company's revenues grew 15 percent to $291 million, Europe rose 40 percent to $311 million and Asia-Pacific generated a 55 percent increase to $181 million for the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, the company expects to ship an enhanced version of its core transaction processing software product, R/3 Version 4.0, at the end of the year. Under the new version, it will include functions specific to retail, public sector, human resources, product management, and treasury management departments for automating a wide range of business processes.