Frankfurt/London — Germany’s SAP announced upbeat results in the seasonally tough first quarter, saying it was gaining ground on its main competitors in the cloud, Salesforce and Oracle, and its margin recovery was firmly on track. SAP, Europe’s largest tech company by stock market valuation, also raised its sales and profits guidance for 2018 to take into account the $2.4bn acquisition of US sales software firm Callidus, announced in January. "We’re gaining share fast and we’re outpacing our toughest competitors pretty handily," CEO Bill McDermott told reporters on a conference call, calling the results strong at the top and bottom line. SAP now expects total non-International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) revenues at constant currencies this year of €24.8bm to €25.3bn, representing growth of 5.5% to 7.5%, up from an earlier expectation of 5% to 7% growth. Non-IFRS operating profits rose 14% in constant currency to €1.235bn, compared to the average forecast of €1.19bn in a R...

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