BERLIN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- SAP SE continues to see strong growth in its cloud computing business, official figures released on Thursday by Europe's largest software producer showed.
Revenue in the cloud computing division of SAP grew by 22 percent to 937 million euros (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in the third quarter of 2017. By contrast, the firm's traditional business with the sale of software licenses only grew marginally.
In total, revenue at SAP grew by four percent to 5.59 billion euros in Q3 compared to the same period last year. The firm listed on the DAX stock exchange in Frankfurt said that it hereby suffered from the effects of a strong euro and could have achieved revenue growth of eight percent otherwise.
Nevertheless, quarterly profits rose by more than a third to 993 million euros following unexpected one-off costs in Q2. A reduction in debt levels also contributed to the improvement in SAP's financial situation.
China has become an increasingly important market for the Walldorf-based firm. Speaking to Xinhua on Thursday, SAP SE financial director Luka Mucic affirmed the "good results in China" achieved in recent years.
Mucic further voiced optimism that SAP's Chinese business would continue to improve in line with the country's expanding economy. "The growing confidence in Chinese companies will also accelerate our business in China this year," Mucic added.
The software firm expressed confidence that its annual performance for 2017 would exceed previous expectations. SAP is now aiming for revenue growth between seven and 8.5 percent for its cloud computing division and total revenue between 23.4 and 23.8 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars)
