SAP confident for 2012

German software giant SAP said Wednesday it was projecting a sharp rise in sales and earnings in 2012 after clocking up its best-ever year in 2011. "SAP performed exceptionally well in 2011 clearly exceeding its guidance for revenue and profit," said chief financial officer Werner Brandt. "In an uncertain environment, we had the best year in our 40 year history and clearly outperformed the competition," boasted co-chief executives Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. "We have significant momentum going into 2012" when software and software-related service revenue are forecast to increase in a range by 10-12 percent and operating profit is expected to rise by up to 11.5 percent to as much as 5.25 billion euros, they said. In 2011, software and software-related service revenues grew by 16 percent to 11.318 billion euros, operating profit was up 88 percent at 4.879 billion euros and after-tax profits soared by 90 percent to 3.441 billion euros, SAP said.