Company
In 1972, five former IBM employees founded the company they call SAP Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development").Taking the initial form of a private partnership under the German Civil Code, the company establishes its headquarters in Weinheim, Germany, and opens an office in nearby Mannheim. However, SAP's five founders spend most of their time in the data centers of their first customers, which include the German branch of Imperial Chemical Industries in Östringen.
Further information can be found on the SAP History page.
"SAP" stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing.
We bring out the best in every business.
That's SAP's vision.
To turn this vision into reality for our customers, we have set ourselves the following three goals as mission:
Agility at scale
Confidently navigate dynamic markets with purpose-built innovations designed for quick implementation, swift scaling, and rapid response
Achieve more across the value chain
Tap into the trusted and scalable business ecosystem, harnessing the intelligence across your internal systems and external partnerships to optimize performance across your value chain.
Sustainability at your core
Transform your operations with next-generation solutions that drive more accurate and actionable sustainability management across your entire enterprise.
The outlook and mid-term ambition can be found in the Quarterly Statement on our Recent Results page.
Organic growth remains the primary driver of our strategy. We will continue to invest in our own product development and technology innovation, improving the speed, number of projects, and innovations brought to market. We will also continue to acquire targeted, strategic, and “fill-in” technology and software to add to our broad solution offerings and improve coverage in key strategic markets. By doing so, we will strive to best support our customers’ needs for simplified operations. Additional information and details about acquisitions in the past can be found on the Acquisitions page.
Find more information about the SAP Executive Board here.
The change of legal form from a stock corporation under German law to a European Company was made to manifest SAP’s self-image as an international player with European roots. Presenting itself as a European Company thus reflects the importance of the Company’s European and international operations.
Our employee headcount is updated regularly in the Quarterly Statement.
SAP offers its employees and managers various investment programs. A comprehensive overview about all employee related topics can be found in the SAP Integrated Report.
Reporting
Since 2008, SAP prepares its consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) endorsed by the European Union (EU). In addition to providing the disclosures required under IFRS, the notes to our statements contain a great deal of additional detail, which we provide voluntarily. A complete list of SAP performance metrics can be found in the SAP Integrated Report and on the Reporting Framework page.
Announcement dates are listed on our Financial Calendar.
SAP is a European company, so our results are reported in euros.
Current cloud backlog is the contractually committed cloud revenue we expect to recognize over the upcoming 12 months as of a specific key date. It is thus a subcomponent of our overall remaining performance obligations following IFRS 15.120. The current cloud backlog takes into consideration committed deals only. It can be regarded a lower boundary for cloud revenue to be recognized over the next 12 months, as it excludes utilization-based models without pre-commitments and committed deals closed after the key date. It also excludes contracts ending within the next 12 months that have not yet been renewed. For our committed cloud business, we believe the current cloud backlog’s expansion over a period is a valuable indicator of go-to market success, as it reflects both new contracts closed as well as renewal of existing contracts.
Share of more predictable revenue is the total of non-IFRS cloud revenue and non-IFRS software support revenue as a percentage of total revenue
We use Cloud ERP Suite revenue expressed in both actual currencies and constant currencies as a metric to measure the growth of our portfolio of strategic cloud solutions.
Cloud ERP Suite references those offerings that are tightly integrated with our core ERP solutions and are included in key commercial packages, such as RISE with SAP. The following offerings currently contribute to Cloud ERP Suite revenue: SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Business Technology Platform, and core solutions for HR and payroll, spend management, commerce, customer data solutions, business
process transformation, and working capital management.Cloud revenue comprises the main revenues of our cloud business. Revenue from cloud is derived from fees earned from providing customers with software as a service (SaaS),
platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). We measure cloud revenue at actual and constant currencies.For explanations on other key growth metrics please refer to the SAP Integrated Report.
SAP reports its financial results in accordance with IFRS and additionally discloses certain financial results on a non-IFRS basis. Certain non-IFRS measures (for example non-IFRS revenue, non-IFRS operating profit and non-IFRS operating margin) are provided both, on a nominal currency basis (as reported basis) and on a constant currency basis.
A comprehensive explanation of the non-IFRS measures can be found on the Reporting Framework page
We believe it is important for investors to have information that provides insight into our sales. Revenue measures determined under IFRS provide information that is useful in this regard. However, both sales volume and currency effects impact period-over-period changes in sales revenue. We do not sell standardized units of products and services, so we cannot provide relevant information on sales volume by providing data on the changes in product and service units sold. To provide additional information that may be useful to investors in breaking down and evaluating changes in sales volume, we present information about our revenue and various values and components relating to operating profit that are adjusted for foreign currency effects. We calculate constant currency revenue and operating profit measures by translating foreign currencies using the average exchange rates from the previous year instead of the current year.
It is a two-step process to get from our IFRS numbers to our constant currency non-IFRS numbers:
Step 1: We eliminate certain effects from our IFRS numbers. More details about these effects and how they are calculated and evaluated can be found on the Reporting Framework page. The resulting figures are our non-IFRS numbers.
Step 2: We then adjust those non-IFRS numbers by eliminating currency effects. The result is our non-IFRS constant currency financial measures.The elimination of currency effects is achieved by translating foreign currencies using the average exchange rates from the previous year’s period (i.e. quarter) instead of the current year. Information on the current and expected currency effects can be found in the latest Quarterly Statement.
SAP provides a yearly revenue and profit outlook, which is based on non-IFRS at constant currencies. We provide guidance on a non-IFRS constant currency basis because these numbers are used as a basis for SAP’s internal management reporting as well. In addition, we provide guidance at constant currencies since we cannot influence currency movements, and it helps prevent frequent changes in guidance due to fluctuations in currency.
Stock and ADR
SAP was first publicly traded on November 4, 1988, on the German Stock Exchange. The first quote was 753.06 DM (385.03 €). The SAP American Depositary Receipt (ADR) has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since August 3, 1998.
SAP shares are listed as SAP ordinary shares through the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the electronic system XETRA, and other German regional stock exchange centers, under the ticker symbol "SAP."
In the United States, shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). An ADR is a receipt representing ordinary or common shares of a non-U.S. company. ADRs are priced in dollars and traded on U.S. exchanges, allowing investors to buy and sell shares of non-U.S. companies in exactly the same way as they purchase or sell shares of U.S. companies. SAP ADRs, with the ticker symbol "SAP," are dollar-denominated securities backed by the shares trading in Germany. The ratio between the ADR and the underlying ordinary shares is 1:1, meaning that one SAP ADR is the equivalent of one SAP ordinary share.
SAP shares are available for purchase as SAP ordinary shares through the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the electronic system XETRA, and other German regional stock exchange centers. Individual investors who aren't from the United States can purchase SAP ordinary shares through their custodian banks, a stockbroker, or generally any institution that offers such brokerage services.
U.S. investors can purchase SAP ADRs through a broker as they would any ordinary security. They can also buy SAP ADRs through the DB-Direct Investor Services Program, which offers investors a variety of convenient, low-cost services to make it easier to invest in ADRs. DB-Direct is administered by Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas and allows new and existing holders to make ADR purchases, sell ADRs, and reinvest dividends. Visit www.adr.db.com and click on the "DB-Direct" icon for more information about the program.
Or, contact:
Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas
SAP ADR Processing Unit
c/o American Stock Transfer & Trust Company,
P.O. Box 2050,
Peck Slip Station,
New York,
NY 10272-2050
Telephone: +1-877-484-5046 or +1-718-921-8137 www.amstock.comdb@amstock.com
Holders of SAP shares should contact SAP investor relations.
Holders of SAP ADRs with questions about stock transfer or dividend payments should contact the Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas. Call +1-877-484-5046 or visit www.adr.db.com.
SAP shares have been listed in the DAX since September 18, 1995. They are also listed in the Prime All Share-Index, CDAX, HDAX, Stoxx50, and EuroStoxx50. The weightings of SAP stock in the major indices can be found on the SAP Stock Basic Data page.
SAP ordinary shares are no-par shares by resolution of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of June 16, 1998.
SAP pays a dividend once a year. The SAP Executive and Supervisory Boards jointly recommend the dividend amount. It is based on the SAP SE financial statements. The amount of dividend requires the shareholders’ approval and is officially decided upon at the SAP Annual General Meeting of Shareholders.
Relevant dates for dividend payment
Record Date
SAP calculates the record date according to German rules and customs, and not according to U.S. rules and customs.
When we speak of “record date,” we mean the record date in the meaning of section 123 (4) of the German Stock Corporation Act (Act). Under German law, the record date has no bearing on your entitlement to dividends, only on your right to participate and vote in the annual general meeting of shareholders. Pursuant to section 123 (4) of the Act, the record date is the 21st day before the annual general meeting.
“Record date” in the U.S. sense relates to the dividend entitlement, and means the date set by the board of directors on which a person must be listed as a shareholder in the company's share register in order to be able to receive the dividend payment.
By contrast, under German law your entitlement to dividends depends on your shareholding on the day of the annual general meeting.
Ex-Dividend Date
Similarly, SAP calculates the ex-dividend date in line with German and not U.S. rules and customs.
In German trading practice, the ex-dividend date is the first trading day after the annual general meeting. On this day, the stock starts trading at a share price less the declared dividend value. If you purchase the stock on the ex-dividend date, the seller (and not you) will be entitled to receive the expected dividend payment. Shares that are purchased (shortly) before the annual general meeting are settled at the regular stock price “cum dividend” regardless of the settlement date.
Dividend Payment
The dividend must be paid out on the third business day following the annual general meeting.
Paying agent
The paying agent for the SAP dividend is DZ Bank AG.
For information about SAP's dividend policy and payout history, visit the Dividends page.
Current dates for the dividends can be found in the Financial Calendar.
One SAP ADR represents one SAP share. The final dividend is dependent upon the Euro/US-Dollar exchange rate. SAP pays cash dividends on the ordinary shares in Euro, so exchange rate fluctuations will affect the US-Dollar amounts received by holders of ADRs, depending on the foreign exchange rate at the time of the conversion of the dividend cash from Euro to US-Dollar. The final dividend payment by SAP to the depositary bank is usually scheduled for the day after the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The depositary bank will then convert the dividend payment from Euro into US-Dollar as promptly as practicable.
ADR investors can invest all or a portion of the cash dividends paid on SAP ADRs through our Dividend Reinvestment Program, operated in cooperation with the Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas. Visit www.adr.db.com and click on the "DB-Direct" icon for more information about this program.
The number of shares outstanding is 1,228,504,232. Further information can be found on the SAP Stock Basic Data page.
SAP carried out several share buy back programs since 2017. The bought shares are primarily used to feed stock-based compensation programs for SAP employees. You can find more details on running and executed programs on the Share Buy Back page.
Our shareholder structure is very stable since years. A current view on the shareholder composition can be found on the SAP Stock Basic Data page.
As the market capitalization is a continuously moving figure, it's best to look it up on the SAP Stock page.
The first trading day of SAP preference shares was August 6, 1990. By resolution of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 3, 2001, and entry into the German commercial register on June 18, 2001, all preference shares were transformed into ordinary shares. For more information, access the press release "SAP to Simplify Share Structure".
1990: Capital increase from corporate funds 1:1,25
1994: Capital increase from corporate funds 1:5
1995: Stock split 1:10
2000: Stock split 1:3
2006: Capital increase from corporate funds 1:4
Shareholders who still hold Ariba shares or have any other question regarding their Ariba shares should call Computershare in the US at +1 201-680-3708.
Shareholders who still hold SuccessFactors shares or have any other question regarding their SuccessFactors shares should call Georgeson at US +1 877 507 1756
For holders of Sybase shares, please call American Stock Transfer (AST) at +1 800 937 5449
Fixed Income
A credit rating is a qualified assessment and formal evaluation of a company's creditworthiness, ability and willingness of repaying outstanding debt obligations on time.
SAP has a long-term issuer credit rating of „A1“ by Moody’s (outlook stable) and „A+“ by Standard & Poor’s (outlook stable).
While SAP had continuously realized successful financing transactions at attractive terms before obtaining an external credit rating in September 2014, a rating now provides SAP with the opportunity to broaden its investor access, to issue further capital market instruments and to optimally benefit from its high creditworthiness. Furthermore, it provides investors, customers and suppliers with an independent view of SAP’s strength and stability as a business partner.
We currently have a syndicated revolving credit facility in the amount of €3 billion and current maturity in November 2028 in place. The facility includes 20 banks and strengthens our financial flexibility. It can be used for general corporate purposes and supplements our existing bilateral credit facilities. The credit facility has not been drawn so far and currently we do not intend to do so.