SAP to buyout stakes in Software AG

FRANKFURT: Germany's Software AG will sell its entire stake in IT consultancy SAP SI to software giant SAP for 26 million euros ($32 million) in cash, Software AG has informed.

The company said in a statement that it would post an extra 24 million euros in second-quarter profit after tax from the sale of its stake, now less than four per cent, in the company it co-founded with SAP in 1997.

SAP offered last month to buy out the 30 per cent of SAP SI it did not already own for 20.40 euros per share -- a price that Software AG accepted.

Software AG's shares, which rose by nearly one-third after last month's offer, fell 1.6 per cent on Wednesday, trading at 21.71 euros and outperforming the TecDAX technology index, which fell 2.5 percent.

SAP, Europe's biggest software company, decided to buy out the minority shareholders to end consultancy duplication and save costs from running a separately quoted subsidiary.

Software AG said the sale should be completed within the next few days.

© Reuters