SAP Momentum Continues with Soaring Growth in Q1

May 2, 2017

New Cloud Bookings Accelerate, Up 49%; Stellar Software Revenue, Up 13%; Strong Operating Cash Flow, Up 16%

WALLDORF, Germany –SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced its financial results for the first quarter 2017 ended March 31, 2017.

Financial Highlights

SAP’s rapid cloud expansion continued in the first quarter. New cloud bookings[i]surged 49% (44% at constant currencies) in the first quarter and reached €215 million. IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew 34% year-over-year to €905 million. Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew 34% year-over-year (30% at constant currencies) to €906 million. IFRS software revenue grew 13% year-over-year to €691 million. New cloud and software license order entry[ii]grew by more than 30% year-over-year in the first quarter. IFRS cloud and software revenue was €4.33 billion, an increase of 12% (9% non-IFRS at constant currencies). Total cloud subscriptions & support revenue and software support revenue was 69% of total revenue.

IFRS operating profit was down 17% to €673 million. Non-IFRS operating profit grew 8% to €1.20 billion (2% at constant currencies). IFRS earnings per share decreased 9% to €0.43. Non-IFRS earnings per share increased 15% to €0.73. The IFRS operating profit and EPS were primarily impacted by an increase in share-based compensation expenses, which increased due to the strong development of SAP’s share price and an increase in employee participation. Nearly 65% of SAP employees have participated in SAP’s most recent stock program OWN SAP.

Operating cash flow was €2.87 billion, an increase of 16% year-over-year. Free cash flow increased 12% year-over-year to €2.58 billion. As a result, the company continues to deleverage its balance sheet ending the quarter with net debt of €460 million, an improvement of €2.8 billion year over year.

“SAP’s outstanding first quarter results are a decisive follow-on to our record setting 2016. Led by S/4HANA, we are seeing mass customer adoption of our solutions globally. Our inspired workforce is firmly committed to staying focused on the success of our customers and shareholders,” said Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP.

“We continued our rapid expansion in cloud, accelerating to 49% growth in new cloud bookings. This outstanding achievement further validates our investment decisions to drive future growth. We’re off to a good start to reach our full year targets and we are confident that we will grow our profitability in 2018 and beyond,” said Luka Mucic, CFO, SAP.

Regional Revenue Performance in the First Quarter 2017

In the EMEA region, cloud and software revenue increased 10% (IFRS). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew 43% (IFRS) with an especially strong quarter in Germany, France and Italy. SAP had triple-digit software revenue growth in South Africa and the Netherlands.

The Company had a strong performance in the Americas region with cloud and software revenue growing by 12% (IFRS). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was up 27% (IFRS), driven by a strong performance in Canada and Mexico with high double-digit growth. In North America, SAP had double-digit growth in software revenue. In Latin America Brazil was a highlight with strong software revenue growth amidst a difficult macroeconomic environment.

In the APJ region SAP also had an exceptional performance in both cloud subscription and software revenue. Cloud and software revenue was up 21% (IFRS), with cloud subscriptions and support revenue growing by 65% (IFRS). Japan and India were highlights in the quarter with strong results in both cloud subscriptions and software revenue. SAP also had strong double-digit software revenue growth in Greater China[iii]and South Korea.

[i]New cloud bookings is the total of all orders received in a given period the revenue from which is expected to be classified as cloud subscription and support revenue and that result from purchases by new customers and from incremental purchases by existing customers. Consequently, orders to renew existing contracts are not included in this metric. The order amount must be committed. Consequently, due to their pay-per-use nature, business network transaction fees which do not include a committed minimum consumption are not reflected in the bookings metric (e.g. SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass transaction-based fees). Amounts included in the measures are generally annualized (annualized contract value ACV).

[ii]New cloud and software license order entry is the total of new cloud order entry and software license order entry. The new cloud order entry metric is identical to the new cloud bookings metric defined above except that it considers the total contract value (TCV) of the orders where the new cloud bookings metric considers the orders’ annualized contract value (ACV). Software license order entry is the total of all orders received in a given period the revenue from which is expected to be classified as software license revenue. The support services commonly sold with the software licenses are not included in the software license order entry metric.

[iii]SAP’s Greater China region includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.