Elliott Effect throws SAP, while Softbank bets on Wirecard By Investing.com

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com – The Elliott Effect Just Hit SAP (DE :).

The B2B software provider is at the top of the bargain after Wednesday's transaction, after Paul Singer's management, Elliott, revealed he has acquired a $ 1.3 billion stake in the company via stocks and derivatives .

Normally, this could have put the most valuable company in Germany against one of Wall Street's most aggressive investors. However, SAP seems to have anticipated a clash by announcing new targets for profit margins and share buybacks. They were designed to reassure investors disrupted by recent significant departures and uncertain progress in migrating its core software business to a cloud-based subscription model.

The new targets more than offset the quarterly loss related to restructuring costs and other items related to the $ 8 billion costly acquisition of Qualtrics' acquisition by SAP last year. Underlying earnings increased more than expected, while operating margins from its cloud operations also improved.

Elliott said he was in agreement with the strategy, according to newswire reports.

Shares rose 7%, reaching a new historical high early in the session, and were up 6.6% at 04:30 (08:30 GMT).

SAP was one of two reasons why Germany was left alone in the green early Wednesday, a day when profit-taking increased in the Asian and European markets after Wall Street reached new records on Tuesday. . The benchmark was down 0.46 percentage point, or 0.1%, to 390.90.

The other reason for Dax's outperformance is Wirecard (DE :), a payment processing company, which grew more than 7% after Japanese venture capital giant Softbank announced a $ 1 billion investment. dollars. This is a huge vote of confidence in a company that has been the victim of allegations of false accounting – claims that it has repeatedly denied.

Quarterly reports from all over Europe also included other positive surprises: Swiss credit (SIX 🙂 rose 2.6% after an 8% increase in net income in the quarter, while chip maker STMicroelectronics (PA 🙂 grew 3.1% after outpacing expectations. Pharmaceutical giant Novartis (SIX 🙂 also increased 2.7% as its guidance for the year on current operating income improved after a strong first quarter. Fast fashion British group Boohoo.com (LON 🙂 also grew 3.8% after reporting strong revenue growth and improved profit margins.