SAP reports non-IFRS preliminary Q4 revenue of €5.47bn, up 7% yr/yr (+4% at constant currency) and above a €5.37bn consensus. Q3 growth was 5% in both euros and constant currency. Q4 growth was fuelled by a 72% yr/yr increase in cloud subscription/support revenue (boosted by the Concur deal, which closed in December) to €360M. Traditional software license revenue was down -2% to €1.87bn; support revenue (driven by past software deals) up +10% to €2.51bn. Cloud billings +115% to €591m.
Operating profit rose +1% (-2% at constant currency) to €2.13bn, and operating margin fell -210 bps to 38.9%. For the whole of 2014, revenue rose 4% to €17.56bn, and operating profit fell 3% to €4.33bn. Full Q4 results, along with SAP's 2015 outlook, are due on Jan. 20.
SAP HANA, the platform for real-time business applications, had “another great quarter and continues to be a major growth engine for SAP,” it says. Customer adoption this quarter was “once again a highlight”.
"In 2014 we continued to deliver on our winning growth strategy. We are the fastest growing enterprise cloud business at scale with the most users in the world. SAP HANA is delivering massive simplification for our customers," said Bill McDermott, CEO. "With the wide-spread adoption of the SAP HANA platform, 2015 is all about accelerating the introduction of next generation applications on HANA and scaling the world's largest Business Network. The roadmap for our customers and ever expanding ecosystem to Run Simple couldn't be more clear."
"In 2014, we achieved a solid 7% growth in non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue at constant currencies in line with our full-year outlook range despite less upfront and significantly more rate-able new business," said Luka Mucic, CFO of SAP. "Operating profit also increased year over year even as we stepped up investments in the cloud in response to higher than expected demand for our new cloud offerings. With the powerful shift to the cloud and our growing support revenues we are building a larger, more predictable business over the long term."