Europe's leading maker of e-business software solutions said in a statement that "the overall political and economic environment is currently unpredictable and and it is difficult to forecast revenues."

However, it still expected its operating margin, excluding charges connected with acquisitions and its stock-based employee bonus programmes, "to improve by at least one percentage point over the 20 percent achieved in 2001, even if 2002 revenues remain relatively flat," the statement said.

SAP had substantially scaled back its sales forecast for the current year twice before. After originally predicting growth of around 15 percent, it lowered the forecast to "between five and 10 percent," only to predict later growth of "around five percent" on the condition that market conditions did not deteriorate further.

Meanwhile, the group said it performed better than expected in the third quarter, with net profit soaring to 202 million euros (198 million dollars) in the period from July to September from 37 million euros a year earlier.

Operating profit, before charges related to acquisitions and stock-based employee bonus programmes, rose to 316 million euros from 201 million euros, with the operating margin rising to 19 percent from 12 percent a year earlier.

Third-quarter sales rose slightly to 1.7 billion euros from 1.65 billion euros.

SPACE.WIRE