WALLDORF (dpa-AFX) - Europe's largest software manufacturer SAP wants to pick up the pace in the new year following the positive turnaround in earnings in 2023. The DAX heavyweight announced late Tuesday evening that earnings before interest and taxes adjusted for special items are set to grow by 17 to 21 percent in constant currency. In terms of turnover with cloud and software products, CEO Christian Klein is aiming for an increase of 8 to 10 percent, excluding currency effects. The cloud division is again expected to be the driver with a targeted increase of 24 to 27 percent. With these figures, SAP would accelerate its growth in revenue from products for use over the network (cloud) and in operating profit compared to the previous year. The targets were higher than analysts on the financial market had expected.

From this year onwards, SAP will include the costs of share-based employee remuneration in the adjusted operating result. These costs amounted to 2.2 billion euros last year. Due to the new definition, SAP has also adjusted its medium-term target for operating profit and now expects around 10.0 billion euros in 2025. Previously, the medium-term target had been more than 11.5 billion euros in earnings - however, the approximately 2 billion euros for share-based payments were previously excluded from this figure./men/he