Software maker SAP does not expect a marked negative effect from a weak U.S. financial sector but does expect this quarter's results to be hit hard by the strong euro, executives said.
Deputy Chief Executive Leo Apotheker said on Monday that SAP was
"We are lucky in a certain sense that we do not have such a big exposure to the financial services industry ... in the United States," Apotheker told analysts at an investor day in Germany monitored by Reuters via Webcast. "We are somewhat sheltered."
Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt added that the strength of the euro versus the dollar and the yen would hurt SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, more this quarter than during the year to date.
"The negative currency effects will strengthen in the fourth quarter compared with the first nine months," he said.
He said currency effects had depressed SAP's operating profit margin by 40 basis points in January-September.
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