An Irish subsidiary of one Europe’s most valuable companies, German software giant SAP, paid out dividends of more than €300 million over two years to its European parent companies, newly filed accounts reveal.
SAP Ireland, formerly known as Business Objects Software until it registered a change of name with the Companies Registration Office earlier this year, is based in Citywest in Dublin.
The company, which develops and distributes business software and analytics tools for the global market, reported a 7.4 per cent rise in revenues last year to €857 million in its most recent set of accounts.
Operating profits at SAP Ireland, which employed 368 people in 2024, mostly in development and sales, jumped to €472 million from €450 million.
READ MORE
When the interest income earned by the company on its various financial instruments is included, profits after tax climbed by more than 13 per cent to €722.4 million at SAP Ireland in 2024.
The company also approved and paid a dividend of €157 million in the year, according to the directors’ report attached to the filings, unchanged from the previous year.
SAP Ireland’s shares are held in two separate companies, French entity SAP France and German SAP SE.
However, most of SAP’s more than 2,000 Irish workers are employed through a separate company, SAP Service and Support Centre Ireland, which also filed accounts recently.
The Galway-based entity, which employed more than 1,740 people in 2024, derives its revenues primarily from customer support services provided to other SAP group entities.
[ SAP leapfrogs Novo Nordisk to become Europe’s most valuable companyOpens in new window ]
Operating profits at the company dipped by more than 11 per cent last year to €81.4 million, largely due to a sharp rise in employee expenses as the firm expanded its headcount.
Yet, the company’s directors declared an interim dividend of €30 million in 2024, which was paid in July last year.
Software giant SAP leapfrogged Novo Nordisk earlier this year to become Europe’s most valuable by company market capitalisation.
After being up as much as 40 per cent year-on-year in 2025, the group’s share price has fallen back in recent months and was last down by more than 2 per cent over the past 12 months.
Novo Nordisk regained the top spot in June.
SAP last year replaced Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML as Europe’s largest technology company.
Based in the town of Walldorf in southwest Germany, SAP now makes up a bigger proportion of the German index than the country’s historic car sector, which includes Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz.
