German software giant SAP said today its 2002 sales were slightly higher than in 2001 and that its profit margins increased fractionally.
SAP, a leading supplier of e-business software, has successively downgraded its sales forecast during the course of 2002 - from anticipated growth of 15 per cent at the beginning of the year to 5 per cent later.
In October, it refrained from making a sales forecast in view of the "unpredictable" economic environment.
It nevertheless insisted it still expected to be able to raise its operating margin to 21 per cent. Further details of the group's preliminary results were scheduled to be released on January 30th.
But the brief statement did appear to contain a spark of hope for the company - SAP said that software licence revenues amounted to €950 million in the fourth quarter. That was way above expectations: analysts had pencilled in a range of between €750 million and €847 million.
SAP shares were showing a gain of 4.69 per cent at €89.93 in a generally weaker market in mid-morning trade on the Frankfurt stock exchange today.
AFP