SAP Announces Q1 2022 Results With Continued Cloud Momentum

Rhea-AI Summary

SAP SE announced strong Q1 2022 results, showcasing a 31% increase in cloud revenue to €2.82 billion. Notable growth was seen in SAP S/4HANA, with a 78% surge. Current cloud backlog approached €10 billion, up 28%. However, the company's overall operating profit decreased 4% and free cash flow dropped 24% due to macroeconomic factors and impacts from the war in Ukraine. Despite these challenges, SAP reaffirmed its financial outlook for the year, projecting cloud revenue of €11.55 - 11.85 billion.

Positive

• Cloud revenue increased by 31% to €2.82 billion.
• Current cloud backlog grew 28% to approximately €10 billion.
• SAP S/4HANA cloud revenue rose by 78%.
• SAP reaffirmed its 2022 outlook for revenue and operating profit.

Negative

• Operating profit decreased by 4% to €1.68 billion.
• Free cash flow fell by 24% to €2.16 billion.
• Projected negative revenue impact of approximately €300 million due to the war in Ukraine.

• Cloud revenue growth further accelerates, up 31% and up 25% at constant currencies
• Current cloud backlog approaches €10bn, up 28% and up 23% at constant currencies
• SAP S/4HANA cloud revenue significantly increases, up 78% and up 71% at constant currencies. SAP S/4HANA current cloud backlog expands even faster, up 86% and up 79% at constant currencies
• SAP reaffirms 2022 outlook for revenue, non-IFRS operating profit and free cash flow

WALLDORF, Germany, April 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

Christian Klein, CEO: "Customers powered another quarter of strong cloud growth as they turned to us for solutions to make their businesses more sustainable, their supply chains more resilient, and their enterprises more future-proof. Our signature ERP offering SAP S/4HANA grew at record levels demonstrating the confidence customers place in us to support their business transformations."

Luka Mucic, CFO: "We are off to a solid start to the year and our outlook remains strong. Despite the current macroeconomic environment, cloud revenue growth accelerated further, fueling total revenue growth. Current cloud backlog grew at a healthy rate and continues to support our confidence in our long-term plans and outlook for the year."

Financial Performance

Group results at a glance – First Quarter 2022
	IFRS			Non-IFRS1
€ million, unless otherwise stated	Q1 2022	Q1 2021	∆ in %	Q1 2022	Q1 2021	∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.
Cloud revenue	2,820	2,145	31	2,820	2,145	31	25
Software licenses	317	483	–34	317	483	–34	–36
Software support	2,923	2,801	4	2,923	2,801	4	1
Software licenses and support revenue	3,240	3,283	–1	3,240	3,283	–1	–4
Cloud and software revenue	6,060	5,428	12	6,060	5,428	12	7
Total revenue	7,077	6,348	11	7,077	6,348	11	7
Share of more predictable revenue (in %)	81	78	3pp	81	78	3pp
Operating profit (loss)	1,053	960	10	1,677	1,738	–4	–7
Profit (loss) after tax	632	1,070	–41	1,166	1,720	–32
Earnings per share - Basic (in €)	0.63	0.88	–29	1.00	1.40	–28
Earnings per share - Diluted (in €)	0.63	0.88	–29
Net cash flows from operating activities	2,482	3,085	–20
Free cash flow				2,165	2,848	–24
Number of employees (FTE, March 31)	109,798	103,142	6
1 For a breakdown of the individual adjustments see table "Non-IFRS Adjustments by Functional Areas" in this Quarterly Statement.
Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely

 

Cloud Performance
	IFRS		Non-IFRS1
€ millions, unless otherwise stated	Q1 2022	∆  in %	Q1 2022	∆  in %	∆  in % constant currency
Current Cloud Backlog
SAP S/4HANA2			1,925	86	79
Total2			9,731	28	23
Cloud Revenue
SaaS/PaaS	2,585	34	2,585	34	28
SaaS/PaaS - Intelligent Spend	808	23	808	23	16
SaaS/PaaS - Other	1,776	40	1,776	40	34
IaaS	235	10	235	10	5
Total	2,820	31	2,820	31	25
thereof SAP S/4HANA	404	78	404	78	71
thereof Qualtrics	269	69	269	69	58
Cloud gross profit
SaaS/PaaS	1,858	36	1,909	34	28
SaaS/PaaS - Intelligent Spend	652	27	653	27	20
SaaS/PaaS - Other	1,206	41	1,257	39	33
IaaS	63	–9	65	–9	–7
Total	1,922	33	1,974	32	26
thereof Qualtrics	207	70	241	64	53
Cloud gross margin (in %)
SaaS/PaaS (in %)	71.9	0.9pp	73.9	0.3pp	0.2pp
SaaS/PaaS - Intelligent Spend	80.7	2.5pp	80.7	2.4pp	2.2pp
SaaS/PaaS - Other	67.9	0.6pp	70.7	–0.3pp	–0.4pp
IaaS (in %)	26.9	–5.6pp	27.6	–5.7pp	–3.8pp
Total	68.2	1.0pp	70.0	0.5pp	0.5pp
thereof Qualtrics	76.9	0.4pp	89.6	–2.6pp	–2.7pp
1 For a breakdown of the individual adjustments see table "Non-IFRS Adjustments by Functional Areas" in this Quarterly Statement.
2 As this is an order entry metric, there is no IFRS equivalent.
Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely
The Q1 2022 results were also impacted by other effects. For details, please refer to the disclosures on page 22 of this document.

Impact of War in Ukraine

In the first quarter, SAP's business was impacted by the war in Ukraine. At the beginning of March, SAP stopped all new sales in Russia and Belarus. In addition, SAP started to shut down its cloud operations and intends to stop the support and maintenance of its on-premise products in Russia. Current cloud backlog was lowered by approximately €60 million due to the termination of existing cloud engagements, and operating profit by approximately €70 million due to reduced on-premise revenues, accelerated depreciation of data center assets and capitalized sales commissions.

For the fiscal year, we expect a total negative revenue impact of approximately €300 million from lack of new business and discontinuation of existing business, in particular software and support and services. For non-IFRS operating profit we expect an impact of approximately €350 million from the revenue gaps mentioned above and other expense items.

In addition to the above, the company expects to incur restructuring expenses of approximately €80-100 million for the fiscal year which will not affect non-IFRS results.

Despite these headwinds, the cloud performance allows SAP to reaffirm its cloud revenue, cloud and software revenue as well as non-IFRS operating profit and free cash flow outlook. The reiteration of the non-IFRS operating profit outlook reflects the benefits of a continued strong cloud revenue growth, operational discipline and portfolio streamlining measures.

Other impacts due to this rapidly evolving situation are currently unknown and could potentially subject our business to materially adverse consequences should the situation escalate beyond its current scope.

Financial Highlights

Current cloud backlog was up 28% to €9.73 billion and up 23% at constant currencies. The war in Ukraine reduced current cloud backlog growth at constant currencies by 0.8 percentage points.

Supported by double-digit growth across the solution portfolio, cloud revenue growth continued to accelerate for the fourth consecutive quarter and was up 31% to €2.82 billion, up 25% at constant currencies.

Amidst continuing investments into our next generation cloud delivery program our cloud gross margin was up 1.0 percentage points year over year to 68.2% (IFRS) and up 0.5 percentage points year over year to 70.0% (non-IFRS). Revenue growth, alongside cloud gross margin expansion, drove strong cloud gross profit growth of 33% (IFRS), 32% (non-IFRS) and 26% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).

IFRS operating profit increased 10% to €1.05 billion, primarily driven by lower restructuring expenses. Non-IFRS operating profit decreased 4% to €1.68 billion and decreased 7% at constant currencies. This decrease against a very strong prior year comparable was mainly driven by expenses related to the war in Ukraine, as well as accelerated investments into research & development and sales & marketing to capture current and future growth opportunities.

IFRS earnings per share (basic and diluted) decreased 29% to €0.63 and non-IFRS earnings per share (basic) decreased 28% to €1.00. The year over year decline of earnings per share reflects a contribution to financial income by Sapphire Ventures that was lower than over the same period last year based on current market conditions.

Free cash flow was down 24% to €2.16 billion, mainly attributable to the development of profitability in the quarter and impacts from working capital due to SAP's continuous move to the cloud, and lower software licenses sales in the fourth quarter 2021. The ongoing business transformation provides more balance of cash inflows throughout the year, and we are reiterating our full year free cash flow outlook.

On January 13, SAP announced a new share repurchase program to support the transition of SAP's share-based compensation programs to equity settlement. By March 31, SAP had repurchased 5,680,250 shares at an average price of €102.26 with a purchased value of approximately €581 million.

Business Highlights

More than 500 customers chose SAP S/4HANA in the quarter, taking total adoption to more than 19,300 customers, up 18% year over year, of which more than 13,900 are live. In the first quarter, more than 60% of the additional SAP S/4HANA customers were net new.

In the first quarter, customers around the globe chose "RISE with SAP" including Accenture, Canon Production Printing, Citizen Watch Company, Daimler Truck AG, Grupo Estrella Blanca, Exide Industries Limited, NEC Corporation, Ooredoo Group, Qinqin Food, Rising Auto, TELUS, Tramontina, and Wipro Limited. Key customer wins across SAP's solution portfolio included: Air France-KLM, FEMSA, Heineken, L'Oréal, Merck KGaA, MLP, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, NHS Shared Business Services, PetSmart, Pick n Pay, Salling Group, Schaeffler, and Swellfun. Further, PT United Tractors, Schwarz Produktion and Vodafone New Zealand all went live on SAP solutions in the first quarter.

Microsoft announced it would become the first public cloud provider to adopt "RISE with SAP" and SAP S/4HANA to transform its own SAP ERP deployment. Adopting these solutions will enable Microsoft to deploy new technologies faster and establish best practices that benefit our joint customers.

SAP's cloud revenue performance for the quarter was excellent across all regions. The United States and Germany had an outstanding cloud revenue performance while Japan, China, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, France, and the UK were particularly strong.

SAP proposed a dividend of €2.45 per share for fiscal year 2021 representing a year-over-year increase of approximately 32%. This amount includes a special dividend of €0.50 to celebrate SAP's 50th anniversary. The dividend is subject to shareholder approval at the upcoming AGM scheduled for May 18, 2022.

On March 9, SAP announced that it had completed the acquisition of a majority stake of Taulia, a leading provider of working capital management solutions. Taulia further expands SAP's Business Network and strengthens SAP's solutions for the CFO office by providing working capital management cloud solutions.

On March 22, SAP and global strategic consultancy BCG announced a partnership to help companies transform their business models, become sustainable enterprises, and gain the data transparency they need to embed sustainability into their core business. The partnership combines SAP's strength as the leading enterprise software company with BCG's proven expertise in advising clients on their sustainability transformation strategies. The SAP and BCG sustainability transformation offering is in pilot phase, with an expected broader launch in the third quarter of 2022.

On March 28, SAP announced that the SAP Signavio brand will represent our portfolio of Business Process Management solutions. SAP also announced general availability of the SAP Signavio Journey to Process Analytics. The new offering correlates experience data from Qualtrics user surveys with operational data from underlying IT systems, giving companies the ability to understand how best to optimize their end-to-end business processes for both operational excellence and customer experience.

Segment Results at a Glance

At the beginning of 2022, the Services segment was integrated into the former Applications, Technology & Support segment which was re-named to Applications, Technology & Services.

Therefore, SAP now has two reportable segments: the Applications, Technology & Services segment and the Qualtrics segment.

Segment Performance First Quarter 2022
€ million, unless otherwise stated (Non-IFRS)	Applications, Technology & Services1			Qualtrics
	Actual Currency	∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.	Actual Currency	∆ in %	∆ in % const. curr.
Cloud revenue	2,495	28	22	269	69	58
Segment revenue	6,695	10	6	320	58	48
Segment profit (loss)	2,168	–4	–7	10	–22	–12
Cloud gross margin (in %)	67.8	0.1pp	0.2pp	89.6	–2.6pp	–2.7pp
Segment margin (in %)	32.4	–4.5pp	–4.6pp	3.1	–3.2pp	–2.5pp
1 Segment information for comparative prior periods were restated to conform with the new segment composition.

SAP's two reportable segments showed the following performance:

Applications, Technology & Services (AT&S)

Segment revenue in AT&S was up 10% to €6.70 billion year over year, up 6% at constant currencies. Segment performance was driven by strong double-digit cloud revenue growth in SAP S/4HANA as well as Business Technology Platform. Software licenses revenue decreased due to the shift to the cloud as more customers are adopting our 'RISE with SAP' offering. Segment support revenue was up 4% to €2.92 billion year over year and up 1% at constant currencies.

Qualtrics

Qualtrics segment revenue was up 58% to €320 million year over year, up 48% at constant currencies. The continued strong growth was driven by robust renewal rates and expansions. Australian Taxation Office, Chipotle, EY, Google Cloud, Grubhub, Hyundai Motor Asia Pacific, Kroger, Microsoft, National Australia Bank, Royal Mail Group, and Shiseido Company, among others, selected Qualtrics Experience Management Solutions.

Business Outlook 2022

SAP is executing on its cloud-led strategy, which is driving accelerating cloud growth through both new business and cloud adoption by existing customers. The pace and scale of SAP's cloud momentum places the Company well on track towards its mid-term ambition.

For 2022, SAP now expects:

• €11.55 – 11.85 billion cloud revenue at constant currencies (2021: €9.42 billion), up 23% to 26% at constant currencies.
• €25.0 – 25.5 billion cloud and software revenue at constant currencies (2021: €24.08 billion), up 4% to 6% at constant currencies.
• €7.8 – 8.25 billion non-IFRS operating profit at constant currencies (2021: €8.23 billion), flat to down 5% at constant currencies.
• The share of more predictable revenue (defined as the total of cloud revenue and software support revenue) is expected to reach approximately 78% (2021: 75%).
• Free cash flow above €4.5 billion (2021: €5.01 billion).
• SAP now expects a full-year 2022 effective tax rate (IFRS) of 28.0% to 32.0% (previously: 25.0% to 28.0%) and an effective tax rate (non-IFRS) of 23.0% to 27.0% (previously: 22.0% to 25.0%). The increase of the effective tax rate outlook mainly reflects an updated projection of the 2022 financial income contribution of Sapphire Ventures in light of current market conditions.

While SAP's full-year 2022 business outlook is at constant currencies, actual currency reported figures are expected to be impacted by currency exchange rate fluctuations as the Company progresses through the year. See the table below for the Q2 and FY 2022 expected currency impacts.

Expected Currency Impact Assuming March 2022 Rates Apply for the Rest of the Year
In percentage points	Q2 2022	FY 2022
Cloud revenue growth	+7pp to +9pp	+5pp to +7pp
Cloud and software revenue growth	+4pp to +6pp	+3pp to +5pp
Operating profit growth (non-IFRS)	+4pp to +6pp	+3pp to +5pp

Ambition for Non-Financial Performance

In 2022, SAP continues to expect:

• a Customer Net Promoter Score of 11 to 15 (2021: 10)
• an Employee Engagement Index in a range of 84% to 86% (2021: 83%)
• Net carbon emissions of 70 kt (2021: 110 kt)

Ambition 2025

SAP confidently reiterates its mid-term ambition published in its Q3 2020 Quarterly Statement.

The full Q1 2022 Quarterly Statement can be downloaded from: https://www.sap.com/investors/sap-2022-q1-statement.

Additional Information

This press release and all information therein is preliminary and unaudited.

SAP Performance Measures

For more information about our key growth metrics and performance measures, their calculation, their usefulness, and their limitation, please refer to the following document on our Investor Relations website: SAP Performance Measures.

Webcast

SAP senior management will host a financial analyst conference call on Friday, April 22^nd at 2:00 PM (CET) / 1:00 PM (GMT) / 8:00 AM (Eastern) / 5:00 AM (Pacific). The conference will be webcast live on the Company's website at www.sap.com/investor and will be available for replay. Supplementary financial information pertaining to the first quarter can be found at www.sap.com/investor.

Financial Analyst and Investor Conference

SAP will hold a financial analyst event on Wednesday, May 11^th, in conjunction with its annual SAP Sapphire conference kicking off on May 10^th.

About SAP

SAP's strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent 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. 

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center:	+49 180 534-34-24
United States Only:	+1 (800) 872-1SAP (+1-800-872-1727)

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP's 2021 Annual Report on Form 20-F.

© 2022 SAP SE. All rights reserved.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional information.

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FAQ

What were SAP's Q1 2022 cloud revenue figures?

SAP reported a cloud revenue of €2.82 billion, reflecting a 31% increase.

How did SAP S/4HANA perform in Q1 2022?

SAP S/4HANA cloud revenue increased by 78% in Q1 2022.

What is the current cloud backlog for SAP?

SAP's current cloud backlog approached €10 billion, up 28% year-over-year.

What challenges did SAP face in Q1 2022?

SAP faced challenges including a 4% decrease in operating profit and a projected €300 million revenue impact due to the war in Ukraine.

How did SAP's free cash flow change in Q1 2022?

Free cash flow decreased by 24% to €2.16 billion.