SAP SE: Cloud Growth Soars Beyond Expectations

SAP Raises 2018 Outlook

- Cloud Subscription Revenue Up 39% (IFRS) and Up 41% (Non-IFRS at Constant Currencies)

- Cloud Eclipsing Software Even Faster than Expected: Cloud Subscription Revenue Now 40% Larger than Software License Revenue

- Accelerated New Cloud Bookings Growth, Up 36% (37% at Constant Currencies)

- Continued Strong New Cloud and Software License Order Entry, Up 12% at Constant Currencies

- Total Revenue Up 8% (IFRS) and Up 10% (Non-IFRS at Constant Currencies)

- Operating Profit Down 6% (IFRS) and Up 11% (Non-IFRS at Constant Currencies) Even with Stronger than Expected Cloud Momentum

- EPS Down 1% (IFRS) and Up 13% (Non-IFRS)

- SAP Raises 2018 Outlook Again Backed by Strong Cloud and Overall Business Momentum

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SAP SE

Oct 18, 2018, 01:01 ET

WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018.

"SAP is the fastest growing cloud company at scale in the enterprise software applications industry. Our growth drivers are firing on all cylinders, especially SAP C/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA as foundations of the Intelligent Enterprise. With a stronger than ever Q4 pipeline, we confidently raise our full year guidance." - Bill McDermott, CEO

SAP SE: Cloud Growth Soars Beyond Expectations

"I am proud of SAP's excellent business momentum: our accelerating cloud growth shows our strategic priorities are exactly on track. Our non-IFRS operating profit was up double digit even with a higher share of cloud and services revenue. As promised SAP's business is growing its resilience with a constantly increasing share of more predictable revenue. All of this makes me confident that we will deliver on our raised 2018 outlook and 2020 ambition." - Luka Mucic, CFO

Business Performance

Financial Highlights Third Quarter 2018

New cloud bookings[1] growth accelerated to 36% (37% at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew 39% year over year to €1.30 billion (IFRS), up 41% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).[2] Software revenue was down 9% year over year to €937 million (IFRS), down 8% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). While SAP had a strong software revenue performance in APJ and Greater China, customers in the Americas and parts of EMEA were moving faster than expected to cloud and hybrid models. With its expanded Intelligent Suite in the cloud and unique hybrid capabilities, SAP is capitalizing on this market trend. This is reflected in the strong new cloud and software license order entry[3], up 12% at constant currencies year over year in the third quarter. Cloud and software revenue grew 7% year over year to €5.01 billion (IFRS), up 10% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Total revenue grew 8% year over year to €6.02 billion (IFRS), up 10% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).

SAP's rapidly expanding cloud business together with solid growth in support revenue continued to drive the share of more predictable revenue. The total of cloud subscriptions & support revenue and software support revenue as a percentage of total revenue grew three percentage points year-over-year to 68% in the third quarter.

Amid a higher than expected share of cloud and services revenue third quarter operating profit declined 6% year over year to €1.24 billion (IFRS) and was up 11% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). The IFRS operating profit was mainly impacted by higher share-based compensation expenses. As announced in January 2018, the Company expects a positive revenue and profit impact from the adoption of IFRS 15 in 2018. In the third quarter, this positive impact on SAP's operating profit was around €74 million. Earnings per share declined 1% at €0.82 (IFRS) and increased 13% to €1.14 (non-IFRS).

Operating cash flow for the first nine months was €3.48 billion, down 16% year-over-year. The decrease in operating cash flow was mainly due to higher share-based compensation payments, higher tax and insurance payments as well as currency headwinds. Free cash flow decreased 26% year-over-year to €2.34 billion. Free cash flow was also lower due to the previously announced additional CapEx for 2018. At the end of the third quarter, net liquidity was -€2.78 billion.

Segment Performance Third Quarter 2018

SAP's three reportable segments "Applications, Technology & Services", "Customer Experience" and "SAP Business Network" showed the following performance.

Applications, Technology & Services (ATS)

In the third quarter, segment revenue in ATS was up 5% to €5.05 billion year-over-year (up 8% at constant currencies). Solutions which contributed to this growth in the third quarter are listed below.

SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA is at the core of the Intelligent Enterprise. With S/4HANA, customers automate more and more of their business processes enabling employees to focus on higher-value tasks. It detects patterns, predicts outcomes and suggests actions empowering companies to reinvent their business models for the digital economy across every industry.

S/4HANA adoption grew to approximately 9,500 customers, up 37% year over year. In the third quarter, approximately 50% of the additional S/4HANA customers were net new.

S/4HANA continues to be selected by world-class global companies, including Wipro, Bombardier and McKesson. OSRAM Continental went live with S/4HANA this quarter. A growing number of companies including Delivery Hero and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group have chosen S/4HANA in the Cloud. Shell has gone live on S/4HANA Cloud in the third quarter.

Human Capital Management

SAP delivers total workforce management across both permanent and contingent labor. The SAP SuccessFactors suite is localized for 92 countries and 42 languages.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, which is the flagship of SAP's HCM offering, added more than 200 customers in the quarter and has now more than 2,800 customers globally. Competitive wins included Skechers, Atos, and Air Arabia. American Airlines went live with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central in the third quarter.

SAP SuccessFactors was recently named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Talent Management Suites and all four IDC MarketScape reports for Worldwide Integrated Talent Management, Performance, Learning and Compensation.

SAP Leonardo

SAP Leonardo brings together cutting-edge technologies – AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Big Data, Advanced Analytics and Blockchain – with deep process and industry expertise, delivering completely new ways of working and powering the Intelligent Enterprise.

Companies like Deloitte and Chint Group are among many others that adopted SAP Leonardo solutions in the third quarter.

SAP Digital Platform

SAP Digital Platform includes SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Data Management Solutions. With SAP HANA's data rich and real-time in-memory architecture as the foundation, this represents a massive opportunity to drive full use of HANA.

The SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) facilitates new app development, extensions and seamless integration. It orchestrates "hybrid" customer landscapes across on premise and cloud.

The SAP Data Hub is the "enterprise control tower" bringing together multi-source data including unstructured. It provides a 360-degree view of all company data and manages compliance and governance policies from one central location.

Grupo Energía Bogotá is one of many customers that adopted SAP's Digital Platform solutions in the third quarter.

Customer Experience

In the third quarter, SAP's C/4HANA customer experience solutions achieved triple-digit growth in new cloud bookings and cloud subscription revenue year-over-year. Segment revenue in Customer Experience was up 54% to €232 million year-over-year (up 54% at constant currencies).

SAP's C/4HANA solutions serve a wide range of industries across both B2C and B2B and enable businesses to manage their entire front office: marketing, sales, commerce, service, customer data cloud – seamlessly and in real-time.

C/4HANA provides companies with a single, complete view of their customer across all channels and connects demand to the fulfillment engine in one end-to-end value chain.

Giorgio Armani, Dubai Expo 2020, Colgate-Palmolive, HP, and Döhler were among those that chose SAP's C/4HANA solutions this quarter.

SAP Business Network

In the third quarter, segment revenue in SAP Business Network was up 22% to €675 million year-over-year (up 22% at constant currencies).

With the SAP Business Network SAP provides collaborative commerce capabilities (Ariba), effortless travel and expense processing (Concur) and flexible workforce management (Fieldglass). SAP Business Network is the largest commerce platform in the world with approximately $2.6 trillion^{^[4]} in global commerce annually transacted in more than 180 countries.

Public Works of Canada, United States Department of Defense, Nationwide, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia chose SAP's Business Network Solutions in the third quarter.

Segment Results at a Glance


Segment Performance Third Quarter 2018
	Applications, Technology & Services				SAP Business Network				Customer Experience
€ million, unless otherwise stated (Non-IFRS)	Actual Currency	∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.	Actual Currency		∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.	Actual Currency		∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.
Cloud subscriptions and support	600	38	39	563		24	24	151		>100	>100
Segment revenue	5,046	5	8	675		22	22	232		54	54
Segment profit	2,096	4	8	155		60	57	24		21	23
Cloud subscriptions and support gross margin (in %)	48	0pp	-1pp	78		3pp	3pp	70		16pp	16pp
Segment margin (in %)	42	-1pp	0pp	23		5pp	5pp	10		-3pp	-3pp

Regional Revenue Performance

SAP had a solid performance in the EMEA region with cloud and software revenue increasing 4% (IFRS) and 5% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was strong and grew by 40% (IFRS) and 40% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) with Germany and Russia being highlights. In addition, SAP had strong software revenue growth in Russia, Italy and the Netherlands.

The Company had a strong performance in the Americas region. Cloud and software revenue increased by 9% (IFRS) and increased by 13% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue increased by 36% (IFRS) and 38% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) with a solid quarter in the United States. Canada had an especially strong quarter in software revenue.

In the APJ region, SAP had a strong performance. Cloud and software revenue was up by 15% (IFRS) and grew by 17% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was exceptional and grew by 53% (IFRS) and 58% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) with Greater China and Japan being highlights. For software revenue, Greater China, Japan, India and South Korea had impressive quarters.

Financial Results at a Glance


Third Quarter 2018
	IFRS			Non-IFRS¹⁾
€ million, unless otherwise stated	Q3 2018	Q3 2017	∆ in %	Q3 2018	Q3 2017	∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.
New Cloud Bookings²⁾	N/A	N/A	N/A	411	302	36	37
Cloud subscriptions and support revenue	1,304	937	39	1,315	938	40	41
Software licenses and support revenue	3,702	3,720	0	3,702	3,720	0	2
Cloud and software revenue	5,007	4,657	7	5,017	4,658	8	10
Total revenue	6,020	5,590	8	6,031	5,590	8	10
Share of predictable revenue (in %)	68	65	3pp	68	65	3pp
Operating profit	1,236	1,314	–6	1,742	1,637	6	11
Profit after tax	974	993	–2	1,360	1,214	12
Basic earnings per share (€)	0.82	0.82	–1	1.14	1.01	13
Number of employees (FTE, September 30)	94,989	87,874	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A


Nine months ended September 2018
	IFRS			Non-IFRS¹⁾
€ million, unless otherwise stated	Q1–Q3 2018	Q1–Q3 2017	∆ in %	Q1–Q3 2018	Q1–Q3 2017	∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.
New Cloud Bookings²⁾	N/A	N/A	N/A	1,078	857	26	31
Cloud subscriptions and support revenue	3,588	2,775	29	3,614	2,775	30	37
Software licenses and support revenue	10,714	10,968	–2	10,715	10,968	–2	3
Cloud and software revenue	14,302	13,742	4	14,329	13,743	4	10
Total revenue	17,280	16,656	4	17,307	16,657	4	10
Share of predictable revenue (in %)	68	66	2pp	68	66	2pp
Operating profit	3,304	2,913	13	4,618	4,405	5	12
Profit after tax	2,401	2,189	10	3,401	3,220	6
Basic earnings per share (€)	2.01	1.81	11	2.85	2.67	7
Number of employees (FTE, September 30)	94,989	87,874	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

¹⁾ For a detailed description of SAP's non-IFRS measures see Explanation of Non-IFRS Measures online. For a breakdown of the individual adjustments see table "Non-IFRS Adjustments by Functional Areas" in this Quarterly Statement.

²⁾ As this is an order entry metric, there is no IFRS equivalent.

Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely.

Business Outlook 2018

Due to the strong cloud and overall business momentum the Company is raising its outlook for the full year 2018:

Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue is now expected to be in a range of €5.150 billion − €5.250 billion at constant currencies (2017: €3.77 billion), up 36.5% – 39.0% at constant currencies. The previous range was €5.050 billion − €5.200 billion at constant currencies.
Non-IFRS cloud and software revenue is now expected to be in a range of €21.150 – €21.350 billion at constant currencies (2017: €19.55 billion), up 8.0% – 9.0% at constant currencies. The previous range was €21.025 – €21.250 billion at constant currencies.
Non-IFRS total revenue is now expected to be in a range of €25.200 billion − €25.500 billion at constant currencies (2017: €23.46 billion), up 7.5% – 8.5% at constant currencies. The previous range was €24.975 billion − €25.300 billion at constant currencies.
Non-IFRS operating profit is now expected to be in a range of €7.425 billion – €7.525 billion at constant currencies (2017: €6.77 billion), up 9.5% - 11.0% at constant currencies. The previous range was €7.400 billion – €7.500 billion at constant currencies.

While SAP's full-year 2018 business outlook is at constant currencies, actual currency reported figures are expected to be impacted by currency exchange rate fluctuations as the Company progresses through the year. See the table below for the Q4 and FY 2018 expected currency impacts.

Expected Currency Impact Based on September 2018 Level for the Rest of the Year
In percentage points	Q4	FY
Cloud subscriptions and support	1 to –1 pp	–4 to –6 pp
Cloud and software	1 to –1 pp	–3 to –5 pp
Operating profit	1 to –1 pp	–3 to –5 pp

IFRS 15 Impact

As of January 1, 2018, SAP changed several of its accounting policies to adopt IFRS 15 'Revenue from Contracts with Customers'. Under the IFRS 15 adoption method chosen by SAP prior years are not restated to conform to the new policies. Consequently, the year over year growth of revenue and profit in 2018 will be impacted by the new policies.

As already announced in SAP's Q4 2017 Quarterly Statement, the Company expects the full year 2018 impact of the policy change[5] on revenue, operating expenses and profit to be as follows:

Revenues are expected to experience a benefit of substantially less than €0.1 billion with most of the difference resulting from exercises of customer software purchase options granted in prior years which result in software revenue.
Operating expenses are expected to benefit, in cost of sales and marketing, in the amount of approximately €0.2 billion from higher capitalization of sales commissions. Other policy changes will weigh on operating expenses with an additional cost of revenue of substantially less than €0.1 billion.
The above-mentioned effects will result in a net positive impact on operating profit of approximately €0.2 billion.

The new revenue recognition policies were described in our Half Year Report 2018. Details regarding the IFRS 15 impact in the third quarter and first nine months can be found in the section 'Impact of Changes in Accounting Policies' in this Quarterly Statement.

Ambition 2020

Looking beyond 2018, SAP continues to expect in 2020:

€8.2 − €8.7 billion non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue
€28 − €29 billion non-IFRS total revenue
€8.5 − €9.0 billion non-IFRS operating profit
The share of more predictable revenue (defined as the total of cloud subscriptions & support revenue and software support revenue) in a range of 70% − 75%.

The full Q3 2018 Quarterly Statement can be downloaded from www.sap.com/investors/sap-2018-q3-statement.

Additional Information

All numbers for the SAP group and the Customer Experience segment include Callidus revenues and profits from April 5, 2018 onwards. Numbers for periods before the acquisition do not include Callidus' revenues or profits.

This Quarterly Statement and all information therein is unaudited.

For a more detailed description of all of SAP's non-IFRS measures and their limitations as well as our constant currency and free cash flow figures see Explanation of Non-IFRS Measures online.

Webcast

SAP senior management will host a financial analyst conference call at 2:00 PM (CET) / 1:00 PM (GMT) / 8:00 AM (Eastern) / 5:00 AM (Pacific). The call will be webcast live on the Company's website at www.sap.com/investor and will be available for replay. Supplementary financial information pertaining to the third quarter results can be found at www.sap.com/investor.

About SAP

As the cloud company powered by SAP HANA®, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best. Our machine learning, IoT, and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers' businesses into intelligent enterprises. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enable more than 413,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

For more information, financial community only:
Stefan Gruber	+49 (6227) 7-44872	[email protected], CET
Follow SAP Investor Relations on Twitter at @sapinvestor.

For more information, press only:
Rajiv Sekhri	+49 (6227) 7-74871	[email protected], CET
Daniel Reinhardt	+49 (6227) 7-40201	[email protected], CET

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
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¹ 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).

² For the third quarter 2018, Callidus contributed €52 million to SAP's Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue at constant currencies and negatively impacted the operating margin by approximately 40 basis points. The Callidus acquisition was closed on April 5th 2018.

³ 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.

⁴ SAP Business Network commerce is the total commerce transacted on the Ariba, Concur and Fieldglass Networks in the trailing 12 months. Ariba commerce includes procurement and sourcing spend. Previously we only included the total commerce transacted on the Ariba Network in this metric.

⁵ "Impact of the accounting policy change" means the difference between a revenue and profit measure determined under SAP's new IFRS 15-based policies and the respective measure as it would stand had our previous accounting policies continued to apply.

SOURCE SAP SE