SAP '08 net profit donwn 2 pc

FRANKFURT: Software maker SAP AG said on Wednesday its 2008 net profit fell, hampered especially in the second half of the year by the world financial crisis.

The Walldorf-based company said net profit fell to euro1.89 billion ($2.49 billion) from euro1.92 billion a year ago. Total revenues increased 13 per cent for the year to euro11.6 billion from euro10.2 billion in 2007.

SAP, the world's largest producer of business-software applications, said it would not provide an outlook for the current year because of the uncertainty surrounding the economic and business environment.

"2008 can be described as a year having two completely opposite halves, where a strong first-half performance was greatly disrupted late in the third quarter by the beginning of the worst economic and financial crisis the world has witnessed in decades," Henning Kagermann, the chief executive of SAP, said in a statement.

"Nevertheless, in total we had a good year amid a very tough economic climate, posting full-year double-digit growth in software and software-related service revenues and gaining additional share against core applications vendors."