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WALLDORF - April 29, 2009 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced its preliminary financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009.
View the Detailed Results (PDF)
View the Webcast and Presentation
*All figures are preliminary and unaudited. ** Revenue line items are adjusted for the Business Objects support revenue that Business Objects would have recognized had it remained a standalone entity but that SAP is not permitted to recognize as revenue under U.S. GAAP as a result of business combination accounting rules. Adjustments in the operating expense line items are for acquisition-related charges. See Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures at the end of the financial section of the press release for explanations of the Non-GAAP measures used in this press release and for related reconciliations to U.S. GAAP. *** Constant currency Non-GAAP revenue and operating income figures are calculated by translating Non-GAAP revenue and Non-GAAP operating income of the current period using the average exchange rates from the previous year's respective period instead of the current period. Constant currency period-over-period changes are calculated by comparing the current year's Non-GAAP constant currency numbers with the Non-GAAP number of the previous year's respective period. See Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures at the end of the financial section of the press release for details.
Revenues - First Quarter 2009
First quarter 2009 Non-GAAP revenue figures exclude a non-recurring deferred support revenue write-down from the acquisition of Business Objects of €11 million.
Income - First Quarter 2009
First quarter 2009 Non-GAAP operating income excludes a non-recurring deferred support revenue write-down from the acquisition of Business Objects and acquisition-related charges totaling €77 million, and first quarter 2009 Non-GAAP income from continuing operations and Non-GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations exclude a non-recurring deferred support revenue write-down from the acquisition of Business Objects and acquisition-related charges totaling €58 million.
“While visibility for software revenues remains limited, we continue to take the necessary steps to protect our margin in this tough operating environment,” said Léo Apotheker, co-CEO of SAP. “The cost containment measures that we initiated in October of last year and carried into the first quarter of 2009 have really taken hold, and we are pleased with the resulting margin performance. We will continue to maintain tight cost controls. Our ability to deliver good margin performance in this environment, especially when you consider the restructuring charges related to the reduction of positions, is due to the strength, flexibility and scalability of our business model.”
Mr. Apotheker continued, “Customers now more than ever need clarity in their businesses, but they also need solutions that are quick to implement and provide a fast return on investment. We are providing customers with both with solutions from SAP BusinessObjects to our new SAP Business Suite 7, which gives customers the ability to quickly address critical pain points with pre-configured industry best practices in a modern and open architecture. In this difficult environment, we have maintained our market leadership because we have the industry’s broadest and deepest product portfolio for large, midsized and small companies, and we have the ability to continue to innovate. SAP is a strong company with a robust business model, a highly skilled workforce and a great customer base. We expect to exit this recession even stronger, just like we did after the downturn earlier in the decade.”
Cash Flow - First Quarter 2009 Operating cash flow from continuing operations was €1.39 billion (2008: €1.07 billion), an increase of 30%. Free cash flow was €1.34 billion (2008: €1.01 billion), an increase of 33%. Free cash flow was 56% of total revenues (2008: 41%). At March 31, 2009, SAP had total group liquidity of €2.95 billion (December 31, 2008: €1.66 billion), which includes cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short term investments.
Business Environment and Cost Containment Measures for 2009 SAP expects the 2009 operating environment to remain challenging. In addition, 2009 will no longer include the effects from the acquisition of Business Objects, and like the first quarter of 2009, the second quarter of 2009 will be a difficult comparison to the strong results reported in the second quarter of 2008, which was prior to the economic crisis that disrupted the global markets beginning in the third quarter of 2008.
Previously, SAP announced that in order to enable the Company to adapt its size to today’s market conditions and the broader impact of the global recession, it intended to reduce its workforce globally to 48,500 positions by year-end 2009, taking full advantage of attrition as a factor in reaching this goal, and that it expected the reduction of positions to trigger one-time restructuring charges of between €200 million to €300 million for 2009. The restructuring charge of €160 million in the first quarter of 2009 covers the reduction of 2,200 positions.
SAP will continue with the cost saving measures that it initiated in October 2008 and will take further steps to reduce expenses, including maintaining tight cost controls on all variable expenses, including third-party related costs, as well as capital expenditures.
Business Outlook SAP maintains the following outlook for the full-year 2009 as described in its January 28, 2009 fourth quarter and full year results press release. Due to the continued uncertainty surrounding the economic and business environment, SAP will not provide a specific outlook for software and software-related service revenues for the full-year 2009. The Company expects its full-year 2009 Non-GAAP operating margin, which excludes a non-recurring deferred support revenue write-down from the acquisition of Business Objects and acquisition-related charges, to be in the range of 24.5% – 25.5% at constant currencies. This includes one-time restructuring charges between €200 million to €300 million expected to result from the reduction of the workforce, which negatively impacts the Non-GAAP operating margin outlook by approximately 2 - 3 percentage points. The 2009 Non-GAAP operating margin outlook is based on the assumption that 2009 Non-GAAP software and software-related service revenues, which exclude a non-recurring deferred support revenue write-down from the acquisition of Business Objects, will be flat to a decline of 1% at constant currencies (2008: €8.623 billion). SAP projects an effective tax rate of 29.5% - 30.5% (based on U.S. GAAP income from continuing operations) for 2009 (2008: 30.0%).
KEY EVENTS – First Quarter 2009
IFRS Financial Data SAP will discontinue its U.S. GAAP reporting and will only report financial data under IFRS from fiscal 2010 onwards. To prepare the capital markets for this change, IFRS financial data are provided in the financial section of this press release.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release contains certain financial measures such as Non-GAAP revenues, Non-GAAP operating income, Non-GAAP operating margin, free cash flow, constant currency revenue and operating income measures, as well as U.S. Dollar based Non-GAAP revenue numbers. These measures are not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP and therefore are considered non-GAAP financial measures. SAP’s non-GAAP financial measures may not correspond to non-GAAP financial measures that other companies report. The non-GAAP financial measures that SAP reports should be considered as additional to, and not as a substitute for or superior to revenue, operating margin or SAP’s other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. See the financial section of this press release for additional information regarding the Non-GAAP measures included in this press release and for the reconciliations to the corresponding U.S. GAAP measures.
Webcast / Supplementary Financial Information SAP senior management will host a conference call today at 3:00 PM (CET) / 2:00 PM (GMT) / 9:00 AM (Eastern) / 6:00 AM (Pacific). The conference call will be web cast live on the Company’s website at http://www.sap.com/investor and will be available for replay. Supplementary financial information pertaining to the quarterly results can be found at http://www.sap.com/investor.
About SAP SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software, offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in all industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 86,000 customers in over 120 countries, SAP is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” (For more information, visit www.sap.com)
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
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Appendix – Financial Information to Follow
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