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To: 2MAR$ who wrote (15047)	9/9/2001 11:14:09 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 208838

SAPG.DE> CEO sees US position improving ( but US isn't improving ) FRANKFURT, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Germany's SAP AG <SAPG.DE> expects its position in the U.S. market to improve relative to its main rivals, even if sales decline in absolute terms, Chief Executive Hasso Plattner said in a magazine interview on Sunday. "America is absolutely the critical and decisive market for SAP," he told German weekly Focus. "We are sure that once it has normalised again after the heavy up and downs, we will be in a relatively better position than previously," he said. "At the same time, 'relatively better' can mean that in absolute terms we have less," he added. Europe's biggest software maker, which has stood up better than many of its competitors to the collapse on technology markets seen this year, saw U.S. software sales sink in the second quarter, but Plattner observed that rivals such as Oracle Corp <ORCL.O> had fared even worse. SAP shares fell sharply last week after U.S. rival Manugistics Corp <MANU.O> cut its second-quarter profit forecast, but the German company reiterated full-year sales and earnings forecasts made in July. SAP is forecasting that full-year sales will rise by 20 percent, with operating margins excluding one-time effects beating the 20 percent achieved in 2000 by one or two percentage points. SAP's main rivals, including Oracle, Siebel Systems <SEBL.O> and Ariba Inc <ARBA.O>, have all seen results hit hard by a sharp decline in spending by their main customers against a background of slowing economic growth in the United States. ((Frankfurt Newsroom +49 69 756525, frankfurt.newsroom@reuters.com))