SAP AG announced that its operating profit for the third quarter, excluding special items, rose 19 percent year over year, reflecting double-digit cloud and software revenue growth on strength in mature markets. Revenue from cloud subscriptions more than doubled from last year.
Announcing its preliminary results, SAP said that operating profit for the third quarter rose 5 percent to 1.21 billion euros from 1.16 billion euros in the year-ago period. The results are on IFRS basis.
Non-IFRS operating profit for the quarter jumped 19 percent to 1.62 billion euros.
Total revenues for the quarter on IFRS basis climbed 17 percent to 4.98 billion euros from 4.25 billion euros in the prior-year quarter. Non-IFRS total revenue also rose 17 percent to 4.99 billion euros.
Cloud and software revenues grew 19 percent to 4.12 billion euros, with revenues from software licenses and support rising 11 percent to 3.52 billion euros. Non-IFRS cloud and software revenue also improved 19 percent.
Revenues from cloud subscriptions and support surged 116 percent to 600 million euros. New cloud bookings, the key measure for SAP's sales success in the cloud, increased 102 percent in the third quarter to 216 million euros.
SAP CFO Luka Mucic noted that the company's flagship next-generation business suite S/4 HANA is rapidly gaining market share. The S/4 was released earlier in 2015.
Looking ahead, SAP reiterated its outlook for fiscal 2015. The company expects full-year non-IFRS operating profit in a range of 5.6 billion to 5.9 billion euros at constant currencies.
SAP continues to expect full-year 2015 non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue in a range of 1.95 billion to 2.05 billion euros at constant currencies, compared to 1.10 billion euros generated last year.
Full year non-IFRS cloud and software revenue is still expected to increase by 8-10 percent at constant currencies, from 14.33 billion euros reported last year.
SAP will report its complete results for the third quarter and nine months 2015 on October 20.
