Business software maker SAP, which employs 550 people in Dublin and Galway, says its net profits surged to €542m in the fourth quarter of last year, up 29% on the same period a year earlier. There was an 8% rise in sales to €2.4 billion.
Taking the year as a whole, net profits grew by 22% to €1.3 billion, operating profits rose by 17% to €2 billion and sales were up 7% at €7.5 billion.
Software revenues, a key yardstick both for SAP and the sector as a whole, rose by 8% to €1 billion in the
fourth quarter alone and were up by 10% at €2.36 billion in the whole of 2004.
The full-year operating margin stood at 27% by the end of last year, an increase of two percentage points from a year earlier.
Looking ahead to the current year, SAP said it expected full-year software revenues to grow by 10-12% and the operating margin to increase by 0.5 percentage points.
