“SAP AG (SAP), the biggest maker of business-management software, forecast at least a 12 percent gain in full-year earnings as it adds Internet-based programs to attract users and fend off competition from Oracle Corp.
Operating profit adjusted for some items will rise to 5.85 billion euros ($7.79 billion) to 5.95 billion euros from 5.21 billion euros in 2012, assuming unchanged exchange rates, SAP said today. Analysts project 6.11 billion euros, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
While the forecast trailed estimates, it helped quell concerns that SAP’s pace of growth may be petering out. Co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermotthave added mobile and Web-based programs as well as the fast Hana database to compete with Oracle and persuade companies to spend even as economies such as that of the euro area shrink.
“I certainly wouldn’t consider that a low-key guidance, it’s double-digit growth and it’s significant,” McDermott said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. “Our cloud business is growing fantastically, as is Hana and mobile, and this emanates from a consistent core, so we’re really bullish.”
SAP shares rose 2.7 percent to 59.40 euros as of 10:43 a.m. inFrankfurt, valuing the company at 73 billion euros. The stock rallied 50 percent last year, making it the fourth-best performer in Germany’s 30-member benchmark DAX Index and exceeding Oracle (ORCL)’s 30 percent gain….”
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