WALLDORF — Today at SAP Sapphire in Orlando, SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced an update of its mid-term financial Ambition 2025 as well as a new share repurchase program with a volume of up to €5 billion.
Ambition 2025 Update
SAP’s Ambition 2025 update demonstrates SAP’s strong cloud momentum, with a cloud revenue ambition of more than €21.5 billion excluding Qualtrics. The updated ambition reflects the expected divestiture of Qualtrics (NASDAQ: XM) as well as an update on the expected 2025 performance of SAP’s continuing operations. This update on SAP’s continuing operations is mainly driven by the anticipation of continued rapid cloud revenue growth, a great degree of resilience from the increasing share of recurring revenues, the value of the support and services business, as well as a more favorable currency environment as compared to the original ambition, published in October 2020.
For 2025, the company now expects:
- Cloud revenue of more than €21.5bn
- Total revenue of more than €37.5bn
- Non-IFRS cloud gross profit of approximately €16.3bn
- Non-IFRS operating profit of approximately €11.5bn
- A share of more predictable revenue of approximately 86%
- Free cash flow of approximately €7.5bn
Reflecting current exchange rates, the new Ambition 2025 is based on an exchange rate of 1.10 USD per EUR.
Building Blocks of the Ambition 2025 Update
(1) Absolute cloud gross profit ambition implied by the original Ambition 2025 of at least €22 billion of cloud revenue and a cloud gross margin of approximately 80%.
(2) Calculated amounts based on lower ends or midpoints of the original and the updated Ambition 2025, as applicable.
“Today’s Ambition 2025 update demonstrates SAP’s momentum in this new phase of our transformation. Our strong, resilient cloud growth drives accelerating total revenue and operating profit growth. We are increasing our total revenue ambition for continuing operations by close to €4 billion, expect significant further acceleration of revenue growth towards 2025 and beyond,” said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE.
“Since the strategy reset in 2020, SAP has made tremendous progress in its cloud transformation. Quarter after quarter, the company has delivered strong results amidst a challenging macroeconomic environment. Looking out at the next 2.5 years, we are now well positioned to accelerate our growth. We are confidently refreshing our mid-term ambition and reiterating our goal of double-digit operating profit and free cash flow growth over that period, while at the same time setting ourselves up for sustainable, dynamic growth beyond 2025,” said Dominik Asam, CFO of SAP SE.
New Share Repurchase Program
Considering its strong business momentum and the expected Qualtrics divestiture, SAP has decided to further step up its capital returns. The new share repurchase program, with a volume of up to €5 billion, is scheduled to start in the second half of 2023 and expected to be fully executed by the end of 2025. It will be implemented based on the authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting of SAP SE on May 11, 2023, and in compliance with the restrictions set forth therein.
The program is conditional on the expected successful closing of the Qualtrics divestiture in the second half of 2023.
“Consistently returning capital to shareholders is a priority and an expression of our financial discipline. This is reflected in our strong policy of increasing dividends, as well as in regular share repurchases which have protected shareholders from ownership dilution,” Asam said.
The new share repurchase program follows SAP’s 2020 and 2022 repurchases of around 14 million shares for about €1.5 billion, and around 16 million shares for about €1.5 billion, respectively.
Webcast
The company will discuss details at its SAP Sapphire financial analyst conference on Tuesday, May 16, at 7:00 p.m. CEST/6:00 p.m. BST/1:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific. The conference will be webcast on the Company’s website at sap.com/investors and will be available for replay.
Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @SAPNews.
About SAP
SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
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