SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced its preliminary financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2009.
Revenues - Third Quarter 2009
- U.S. GAAP software and software-related service revenues were €1.94 billion (2008: €1.99 billion), a decrease of 3%. Non-GAAP software and software-related service revenues were €1.94 billion (2008: €2.04 billion), a decrease of 5% (5% at constant currencies).
- U.S. GAAP total revenues were €2.51 billion (2008: €2.76 billion), a decrease of 9%. Non-GAAP total revenues were €2.51 billion (2008: €2.80 billion), a decrease of 10% (10% at constant currencies).
- U.S. GAAP software revenues were €525 million (2008: €763 million), a decrease of 31% (30% at constant currencies).
Income - Third Quarter 2009
- U.S. GAAP operating income was €606 million (2008: €614 million), a decrease of 1%. Non-GAAP operating income was €674 million (2008: €731 million), decrease of 8% (7% at constant currencies). U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP operating income were negatively impacted by restructuring charges of €21 million resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions. The third quarter 2009 operating income was also affected by non-recurring items, particularly litigation expenses and profit resulting from reversals of provisions recorded in the accounting for the acquisition of Business Objects. The net effect of these non-recurring items was an increase of operating income by €2 million.
- U.S. GAAP operating margin was 24.2% (2008: 22.2%), an increase of 2.0 percentage points. Non-GAAP operating margin was 26.9% (2008: 26.1%), or 27.2% at constant currencies, an increase of 0.8 percentage points (1.1 percentage points at constant currencies). The €21 million in restructuring charges resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions negatively impacted the U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP operating margin by 0.8 percentage points.
- U.S. GAAP income from continuing operations was €436 million (2008: €410 million), an increase of 6%. Non-GAAP income from continuing operations was €488 million (2008: €497 million), a decrease of 2%. U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP income from continuing operations were negatively impacted by restructuring charges of €14 million, net of tax, resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions. The effective tax rate in the third quarter of 2009 was 21.0% (2008: 31.9%) and was affected by non-recurring acquisition-related items which positively impacted the third quarter 2009 tax rate by approximately 11.7 percentage points.
- U.S. GAAP basic earnings per share from continuing operations were €0.37 (2008: €0.35), an increase of 6%. Non-GAAP basic earnings per share from continuing operations were €0.41 (2008: €0.41), flat year-over-year. The restructuring charges, net of tax, resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions negatively impacted the U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP basic earnings per share by 0.01€.
Third quarter 2009 Non-GAAP operating income excludes acquisition-related charges totaling €67 million (2008: €76 million), and third quarter 2009 Non-GAAP income from continuing operations and Non-GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations exclude acquisition-related charges totaling €52 million (2008: €87 million, which included a deferred revenue write-down).
"We are pleased to report another quarter of increasing margins despite a decline in revenues. This demonstrates our continued success in maintaining tight cost controls," said Werner Brandt, CFO of SAP. "While we are seeing signs of stabilization in the general environment, the market remains difficult. Third quarter software and software-related service revenues came in lower than we expected mainly because of a particularly challenging environment in the emerging markets and Japan."
"Despite the continued tough spending environment, we are pleased to see further progress in the evolution of our volume business as a result of smaller deals," said Léo Apotheker, CEO of SAP. "In addition, we are driving more multi-year agreements, where customers buy and consume software over many periods, which we believe is a positive transition for both SAP and our customers. We have the benefit of many years of experience in facilitating the purchase of our software in this manner, including the success we had in signing multi-year, Global Enterprise Agreements with our largest customers. We have now started to leverage this approach with a bigger group of customers. And, most importantly, our solutions are built on a highly flexible and modular architecture allowing us to easily adopt this model."
Revenues - Nine Months 2009
- U.S. GAAP software and software-related service revenues were €5.63 billion (2008: €5.79 billion), a decrease of 3%. Non-GAAP software and software-related service revenues were €5.64 billion (2008: €5.93 billion), a decrease of 5% (6% at constant currencies).
- U.S. GAAP total revenues were €7.48 billion (2008: €8.08 billion), a decrease of 7%. Non-GAAP total revenues were €7.49 billion (2008: €8.22 billion), a decrease of 9% (10% at constant currencies).
- U.S. GAAP software revenues were €1.49 billion (2008: €2.28 billion), a decrease of 35% (35% at constant currencies).
Nine Months 2009 Non-GAAP revenue figures exclude a non-recurring deferred support revenue write-down from the acquisition of Business Objects of €11 million (2008:€140 million).
Income - Nine Months 2009
- U.S. GAAP operating income was €1.59 billion (2008: €1.57 billion), an increase of 1%. Non-GAAP operating income was €1.80 billion (2008: €1.93 billion), a decrease of 7% (7% at constant currencies). U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP operating income were negatively impacted by restructuring charges of €186 million resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions.
- U.S. GAAP operating margin was 21.2% (2008: 19.4%), an increase of 1.8 percentage points. Non-GAAP operating margin was 24.0% (2008: 23.5%), or 24.2% at constant currencies, an increase of 0.5 percentage points (0.7 percentage points at constant currencies). The €186 million in restructuring charges resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions negatively impacted the U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP operating margin by 2.5 percentage points.
- U.S. GAAP income from continuing operations was €1.08 billion (2008: €1.07 billion), an increase of 1%. Non-GAAP income from continuing operations was €1.24 billion (2008: €1.34 billion), a decrease of 8%. U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP income from continuing operations were negatively impacted by restructuring charges of €131 million, net of tax, resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions.
- U.S. GAAP basic earnings per share from continuing operations were €0.91 (2008: €0.90), an increase of 1%. Non-GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations were €1.04 (2008: €1.12), a decrease of 7%. The restructuring charges, net of tax, resulting from the previously announced reduction of positions negatively impacted the U.S. GAAP and Non-GAAP basic earnings per share by €0.11.
Nine Months 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 €211 million (2008: €365 million), and Nine Months 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 €161 million (2008: €271 million).
Cash Flow - Nine Months 2009
Operating cash flow from continuing operations was €2.38 billion (2008: €1.97 billion), an increase of 21%. Free cash flow was €2.21 billion (2008: €1.73 billion), an increase of 28%. Free cash flow was 29% of total revenues (2008: 21%). At September 30, 2009, SAP had a total group liquidity of €3.04 billion (December 31, 2008: €1.66 billion), which includes cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short term investments. At September 30, 2009, net liquidity, defined as total group liquidity less bank liabilities, was €925 million.
Cost Containment Measures for 2009
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 implemented a global reduction of positions to 48,500 by year-end 2009, taking full advantage of attrition in reaching this goal, and that it expected the reduction of positions to trigger one-time restructuring charges of approximately €200 million for 2009. For the first nine months of 2009, the Company recorded in operating income a restructuring charge of €186 million, and reduced approximately 2,900 positions.
Business Outlook
SAP is providing the following outlook for the full-year 2009:
The Company continues to expect 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 25.5% - 27.0% at constant currencies. This includes one-time restructuring charges of €200 million expected to result from the reduction of positions, which negatively impact the Non-GAAP operating margin outlook by approximately 2 percentage points. The 2009 Non-GAAP operating margin outlook is now 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 decline in a range of 6% - 8% at constant currencies (2008: €8.623 billion). SAP updated its outlook for the 2009 tax rate to 27.0% - 28.0% from the previously expected 2009 tax rate of 29.5% - 30.5% (based on U.S. GAAP income from continuing operations) for 2009 (2008: 30.0%).
KEY EVENTS - Third Quarter 2009
- In the third quarter of 2009, SAP closed major contracts in several key regions including Dagrofa/SuperGros, INDRA SISTEMAS, S.A., Prada S.p.A., SeverStal OAO, Surgutneftegaz OAO, Swiss Life AG, and Telefonica, S.A. in EMEA; Banco Industrial S.A., ConocoPhillips, Dolby Laboratories, Fairfax County, Research In Motion Limited, and Valero Services Inc. in Americas; and APL Co. Pte. Ltd, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, Samchully Co., Ltd., and Taiwan Power Company in the Asia Pacific Japan region.
- On September 24, SAP announced that it is working with Microsoft and Accenture to develop a global carbon reporting, benchmarking, and analytics system for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the world's largest carbon reporting initiative.
- As announced on September 23, SAP's ranking rose four places to number 27 in the 2009 BusinessWeek/Interbrand annual list of the 100 Best Global Brands, with SAP's brand value holding strong at $12.106 billion. The Company's ranking is now at an all-time high as the 27th most valuable brand in the world.
- On September 23, SAP announced that SAP India was honored with the prestigious Dataquest "Top Software Company" award for 2009. This is the first time Dataquest has selected an enterprise software company for the award. SAP was chosen on the basis of its outstanding performance in the past year.
- On September 16, SAP announced that it signed a €1.5 billion three-year Revolving Credit Facility to refinance SAP's previous €1.0 billion revolving credit facility signed in November 2004. SAP intends to use this credit facility for general corporate purposes. Deutsche Bank AG, J.P. Morgan plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc acted as mandated lead arrangers and book runners of the Facility. The new Facility was launched on August 4 at €1.0 billion and was extremely well received. It was oversubscribed by more than 150 percent with a total of 28 banks committing to it. In light of this strong support, SAP elected to increase the amount of the Facility to €1.5 billion.
- On September 9, SAP announced that its SAP World Tour 2009, a series of regional customer events held in more than 70 cities across Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America, have attracted more than 31,000 attendees. The events will run through November 2009.
- On September 4, SAP announced it acquired the majority shareholding in SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting AG (SAF), a global forecasting and replenishment software leader in the retail and wholesale industries. As of September 24, the aggregate number of SAF shares attributable to SAP amounted to 4,044,783 SAF shares in total; corresponding to approximately 73.02% of the share capital and the voting rights of SAF AG.
- On September 4, SAP announced that the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) named SAP as the software sector leader for the DJSI for the third consecutive year. SAP had sector-leading scores in 12 of the 20 key dimensions, including operational eco-efficiency (where it scored 100 percent), brand management, human capital development, corporate citizenship and codes of conduct. SAP also received a 100 percent rating for its environmental reporting, driven by its innovative and interactive online sustainability report.
- On August 12, SAP announced that IT market research firm IDC reported SAP as the market leader in performance management and analytic applications for the second consecutive year, based on software license and maintenance revenue. SAP achieved the fastest market growth rate of the top five vendors in financial performance and strategy management, part of the overall business analytics market.
- On August 5, SAP announced the continued success of hosted offerings from its channel partners for midsize companies, enabling customers to better respond to changing market conditions. SAP's midsize customers worldwide have chosen hosting as an alternative to the traditional on-premise deployment option, allowing midsize companies to implement and run the SAP Business All-in-One solutions without the need to hire and train dedicated IT staff to implement and manage the software.
- On July 30, SAP announced the availability of feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign, specifically designed for midsize companies. The new feature pack significantly expands functionality and provides more value to customers by offering business support for 35 end-to-end process scenarios through an on-demand solution.
- On July 20, SAP announced enhancements to SAP BusinessObjects Data Services and SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator software, part of SAP BusinessObjects information management (IM) solutions. These solutions support both SAP and non-SAP IT environments, and now have expanded support for SAP customers with integration with the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse.
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 in addition 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 (UK) / 10:00 AM (Eastern). The conference call will be webcast live (and for replay purposes) on the Company's website at http://www.sap.com/investor along with supplementary financial information.