DGAP-Adhoc

SAP SE: SAP Announces Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results, Raises Full-Year Outlook - Seite 2

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, SAP continues to serve its customers effectively with an embedded virtual sales and remote implementation strategy. The company retains a disciplined approach to hiring and discretionary spend while capturing natural savings e.g. from lower travel, facility-related costs and virtual events. The prior year included a cost of approximately €36 million in relation to the cancellation of its in-person annual SAPPHIRE NOW and other customer events, as well as normal travel behavior. These factors in combination with the strong topline performance drove materially higher operating profit (non-IFRS at constant currencies) and operating margin both of which were significantly above market expectations.

First Quarter Financial Performance

Current cloud backlog was up 15% to €7.63 billion and up 19% (at constant currencies). Cloud revenue was up 7% year over year to €2.14 billion (IFRS), up 7% to €2.15 billion (non-IFRS) and up 13% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Software licenses revenue was up 7% year over year to €0.48 billion (IFRS and non-IFRS) and up 11% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud and software revenue was up 1% to €5.43 billion (IFRS and non-IFRS) and up 6% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Services revenue was down 18% year over year to €0.9 billion (IFRS and non-IFRS) and down 14% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). This revenue decline reflects the November 2020 divestiture of SAP Digital Interconnect, which contributed approximately €90 million of services revenue (IFRS and non-IFRS) in the first quarter of 2020. Total revenue was down 3% year over year to €6.35 billion (IFRS and non-IFRS) and up 2% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).

The share of more predictable revenue grew by approximately 2 percentage points year over year to approximately 78% in the first quarter.

IFRS operating profit decreased 21% to €0.96 billion and IFRS operating margin decreased by 3.4 percentage points to 15.1% due to higher share-based compensation expenses (primarily related to Qualtrics IPO awards) and restructuring expenses related to the accelerated harmonization of SAP's cloud delivery infrastructure. Non-IFRS operating profit increased 17% to €1.74 billion, up 24% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) and operating margin increased by 4.7 percentage points to 27.4%, up 4.9 percentage points (non-IFRS at constant currencies).