Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of SAP SE Open. And as required by the company's articles, As Chairperson of the Supervisory Board, I'll be presiding over today's meeting. On behalf of the Supervisory Board and the Executive I'd like to bid you, our shareholders and shareholders' proxies, a warm welcome. We are delighted that once again so many of you were able to attend. The detailed objective and informed reporting on our company over the past 12 months.
The members of the executive board, not Of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board are present, except for Jim Hogmansnabe, who send his excuses for his absence today. I'd also like to welcome Mr. Ulrich Hoffman Remi, a note republic from the military office in Heidelberg, Today's meeting has been called in due course. On the 31st March 20 17, an announcement was published in the Federal Gazette. A copy can be seen at the table where the minutes are deposited.
All conditions that are required for convening the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders who are properly issued. No motions or candidacies was submitted by the shareholders of the company. The official meeting zone includes this main hall. That is this interior hall of the SAP Arena. Sorry?
The official meeting zone includes this main hall of the SAP arena plus all the other rooms and areas in the SAP agreement that are accessible to shareholders after passing through security at the entrance. These include the training hall opposite the entrance area. We lost throughout the official meetings on the loudspeakers. There's also a big screen in the training hall on which you can follow, a meeting. The attendance register is computerized and updated constantly.
There is constantly. There is a terminal at the speakers table at which you can inspect the register anytime during the meeting. If you wish to leave the shareholders meeting early, you can appoint the employees of the company present for that purpose as your proxies. They will follow your instructions. To do so, please use the proxy and instruction card in the back section of your ballot card book.
You're allowed to instruct the proxies is provided by the company exclusively with respect to voting on the management proposals published in the invitation. You can, however, entrust your vote to another participant. To do so, detach the attendance card and proxy form from your ballot card book. On your way out hand you completed proxy form to the staff at the door. Keep your attendance card and give you a proxy your ballot card book.
If you wish to leave the meeting temporarily or early and do not wish to appoint is also possible. Shareholders participating online can follow a live webcast of the entire meeting, cast events in real time and the attendance register. Shareholders participating via the Internet proxy appointment and instruction system until the beginning of voting on management's announced proposals to send or amend the appointments and instructions regarding these proposals. All shareholders and proxies who wish to speak or ask questions are kindly asked to report to the speakers table as soon as possible. Please complete the speaker's request form.
Please clearly and legible in the request form. I must insist that every shareholder or proxy wishing to speak without I must insist that every shareholder or proxy wishing to speak without exception The entire Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is being publicly broadcast on the Internet. However, only what I'm saying now and the speech of CEO, Bill Macdonald will be recorded and press it on the Internet after the meeting. As in the previous year, we assume that your approval, we're allowing some television companies to broadcast highlights from the speech of Mr. McDermott.
However, we are allowing the TV companies to show sections of his speech only. The entire meeting is also being in sound and video for the record in full length. If a shareholder proxy objects to the recording of his or her speech, We will not record that speech. I'd like to remind all of you here and those shareholders participating online that you are not permitted to make any sound or video recordings of the meeting yourselves. And now to the agenda.
Ladies and gentlemen, I can report that the 2016 SAP SE Financial Statements and the consolidated financial statements, The combined management report for SAP Group and SAP SE, including the executive reports, explain the results relating to the information provided pursuant to the German commercial code Section 2899, subparagraph, para 4, L315, para 4. The Supervisory Board report and the Executive Board's proposed resolution on the appropriation of retained earnings were available at the website, www.sap.comagm from the time the general meeting of shareholders was called. These documents are also available for inspection in the meeting room. You'll find them at the speakers table in the main hall and at the booth in front of the entrance to the main hall. The auditor KPMG AG, Berchstraf's Breufungsgesellschaft examine the SAP SE financial statements, consolidated financial statements and combined SAP SE and SAP Group Management Report for fiscal 2016 and issued an unqualified audit opinion.
The Supervisory Board reviewed and approved the aforementioned documents On the 22nd February 2017, the SAP SE Financial Statements for 2016 whether it's formally adopted. The supervisory board compared to written report, which is published on pages 16 to 22 of the annual report. Well, Thank you. I'm on Page 6 now. I'm synchronized again.
I wish to make the following comments on the report of the Supervisory Board. As in previous years, the Supervisory Board laid on the close and constructive dialogue with Executive Board to effectively perform its duties. The Supervisory Board regularly receive full and timely reports from the Executive Board both in person and in writing on fundamental corporate policy issues, the economic situation and performance of the SAP Group and on significant transactions and business measures. Part of the Supervisory Board's work is to look beyond the financial results and company's strategy. At numerous meetings in 2016, we discussed various initiatives and projects implementing the 2020 strategy, whose goal it is to make SAP the world's leading cloud company in terms of market share, market capitalization and revenue.
Likewise in our line of focus was the 1 simple initiative, SAP's project for simplifying its internal processes and reducing complexity. At this point, I would particularly like to emphasize that since 2016, the Supervisory Board has been using The SAP Digital Boardroom and its meetings. The SAP Digital Boardroom is an information and decision making developed by SAP. Our Chief Financial Officer uses this tool to present all financial process related information across all company transactions to us in real time and is able to call up and display any variety of details of ad hoc in response to specific questions from us. The digital boardroom gives us full transparency and comprehensive insight into our business at all times, even outside of our times, even outside of our meetings.
As such, traditional presentations with static data like PowerPoint Nothing of the past for the Supervisory Board. There were 4 ordinary meetings and 1 ex revenue meeting of the Supervisory Board in 2016. Our database called HANA is so flexible that the system can work like this. The Executive Board kept me as the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board fully informed between meetings of the Supervisory Board Notably through regular conversation with Bill McDermott in his capacity as SAP's CEO, which discuss topics in-depth with the Executive Board and prepare important Supervisory Board decisions that are within the committee's terms of reference is terms of reference. The chairpersons of the various committees regularly report the committees work to the full supervisory board meetings, allowing close cooperation and sufficient exchange of information.
At this juncture, I would like to mention a few changes in the membership of the Executive Board, which we announced back in April. Steve Singh has decided to pursue other entrepreneurial goals outside of SAP and therefore, left the company at the end of April. Working closely with Rob Enslin, Steve was instrumental in integrating his enterprise Concur to SAP, helping lay the foundation for business networks to become a key part of SAP's business. We thank Steve for his support and commitment to SAP. He will remain a friend of the company in future.
The supervisory report appointed Effective May 1, supervisory board appointed Adaire Fox Martin and Jennifer Morgan to the Executive Board effective May 1, 2017. With the tender responsibilities of Rovancelin in the cloud business, mainly development. As and Morgan will assume global responsibility of SAP's sales organization. They bring many years of experience and success in the Asia Pacific, Japan and Americas regions. Going forward, Adaire will lead SAP's business the EMEA region and Greater China.
Jennifer will be responsible for the North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific, Japan regions. I'd like to welcome our 2 new board members and would now like to ask them to introduce themselves to our shareholders.
Ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning to you. My name is Adaire Fox Martin, and I lead SAP's business in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Greater China. Together with my colleague and partner, Jennifer Morgan, we oversee SAP's industry go to market efforts and field execution to drive customer success across all geographies. I am deeply honored and humbled to be appointed to the SAP Executive Board as Co President of Global Customer Operations. Thank you to our Co Founder and Chairman, Doctor.
Plattner, and the Supervisory Board for the trust and confidence they have placed in me to serve our valued customers and shareholders. Originally from Ireland, I moved to Asia in 1996. For the past 3 years, I've been leading SAP's business in the Asia Pacific Japan region, building strong relationships with our customers and our partners, driving innovation and value for our customers through a very diverse and engaged workforce. SAP has recently been recognized as the 6th best multinational workplace in Asia, cementing our position as employer of choice in the region. My role also extends to me the privilege to have the opportunity to make a difference in Asia Pacific Japan.
Through programs like 1,000,000,000 lives. 1,000,000,000 lives is an employee initiative that leverages the power of SAP technology with the objective of improving 1,000,000,000 lives in Asia Pacific Japan. This initiative represents our continued and unwavering commitment to driving SAP's vision of helping the world run better and improving people's lives. Prior to being President of SAP in Asia Pacific, Japan. I was the Chief Operating Officer of SAP in the region.
I joined SAP in 2,008 as the Head of the Public Sector for Asia Pacific and subsequently assumed the role of Senior Vice President for Industry Business Solutions across the region. In this role, I was responsible for defining SAP's strategy for long term industry investment and go to market in the Asia Pacific region. In total, my career in IT sector spans more than a quarter of a century, including several leadership positions across Asia and Europe and roles in almost every line of business in a software company, from sales, business development, consulting, development, education and support. Today, I have the distinct honor of leading the Global Customer Operations Organization with Jennifer Morgan and representing the voice of the customer at the SAP Executive Board. The next chapter of growth will be a very exciting one for our customers, our partners and for SAP.
I look forward to working closely with the other members of the Executive Board to drive either greater customer success, Innovation and growth at SAP. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to serve on the SAP Executive Board. Good morning. And I'd like to thank our Co Founder and Chairman, Hasso Plattner for that introduction our CEO, Bill McDermott And my colleague and good friend, Adaire Fox Martin as well. It's my to be here with all of you today and a privilege to introduce myself to our SAP shareholders along with Adaire as one of SAP's newest executive board members.
My journey at SAP began Nearly a decade and a half ago, when I began my career here as an account executive in my native Washington, D. C. Since that time, I've served in a variety of leadership roles, including as President of our Public Services Business in the U. S, as President of Regulated Industries and for the last 3 years as President of SAP in North America, where I've been immensely proud to lead our nearly 25,000 employees across the U. S.
And Canada and serve our more than 150,000 customers in the region. Leading SAP for the last 3 years has been an incredible privilege in North America. I'm immensely proud of the culture we've created in the region and the work we've done to continue our growth in that incredibly important strategic market for SAP. I'm also very proud that Fortune Magazine recently recognized SAP North America for the first time ever as one of the region's best places to work, an incredibly important recognition and reflection of our employees and the work they do each and every day. I could not be more energized and excited by the task ahead as Adaire and I take over the mantle of leadership for global customer operations.
And as I expand my regional responsibilities to also include Asia Pacific, Japan, Latin America, in addition to North America. As Adaire and I have spent the period of time since the announcement meeting and with employees and teams around, time since the announcement meeting and with employees and teams around the world, we've been very clear in our message to our teams. Our short, medium and long term focus is, as always, on delivering results for all of you, our shareholders. And we've also been clear that our leadership will be animated and driven by the spirit of service, service to our customers and service to our people. For as much as we have to be thankful for at SAP, An incredible portfolio, a winning strategy and strong momentum.
It is our people that set us apart and have written our story for more than 4 decades. The success we've achieved together is a reflection of the more than 85,000 men and women around the world who go to work every day, proud to serve this amazing company. Along with Adaire and the rest of my executive board colleagues, I'm so excited to write the next chapter of success alongside each of them. I'm deeply honored by the trust that the Executive Board, the Supervisory Board, and all of you and Haso have placed in me. I'm honored by the trust as you as shareholders continue to place in SAP and all of us as leaders.
And I thank you for the opportunity to be here and introduce myself to you here today.
Thank you very much, Adaire and Jennifer. Including Adaire and Jennifer, you now see 4 German and 4 foreign executive board members on stage, 3 of whom live in the executive board members on stage, 3 of whom live and work in the United States. This strong internationalization is key to SAP's success as a global company Its main competitors, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Workday and so on are all headquartered in the USA. The strong presence of American Board members with good contacts in the private and public sectors in the United States is proving to be a crucial competitive advantage, especially now. To survive in our industry, it is vital that we stay on top of the latest trends, which predominantly come from the USA and Silicon Valley.
There will also be some changes in the membership of the Supervisory Board. As you have already seen in the press, Jim Argeman Now they have decided to take up the first of Siemens' Supervisory Board Chairperson starting 2018. As part of this move, he has also chosen to step down from the SAP Supervisory Board to avoid any conflict of interest between the 2 companies from the outset. Although we fully respect his decision and wish him all the best in his new role, we deeply regret losing such a talented and competent individual from our supervisory board. There's hardly anyone who knows our company and industry better.
Jim has been with the company in outstanding positions between 2018 2014 as an Executive Board Member. After 2010 as a co CEO together with Bill McDermott. During this time, he had built set the course for SAP is all important transformation to a leading cloud company. Then in 2014, he joined the Supervisory Board where you played a key role in advising and supporting the management team while the company was into mid year. But I'm positive our friendly relations will remain.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned at the outset, Jim is unable to attend today's meeting in person. He is the Chairman and the Danish company, which has an important meeting today, which you must attend. Still, I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you on behalf of every of the Supervisory Board. I think I speak for the Executive Board and entire SAP staff as well for his outstanding work and remarkable Well, maybe he watches on the Internet. Ladies and gentlemen, after Jim informed us of his decision.
The supervisory board immediately got down to work looking for a suitable successor. Since the supervisory board does not yet fulfill the statutory quota requiring at least 30% of seats to be held by women. Only women may be considered for this position. In addition, it's important to us that we find a person with proven technical strong management skills and a high degree of internationality to succeed Jim. That was quite a catalog of requirements.
And then we added also possibly with knowledge in artificial intelligence. We believe we've now found the ideal candidate, Ayesha Evans, most suitable candidate, I'm sure, meets all these requirements. We are now supposed to see a picture on the screen. There she is. This is Ayesha Evans.
Asher Evans is from the United States and works in Silicon Valley, California as Chief Strategy Officer of Intel, the US American semiconductor manufacturer. Known as the world's leading producer of PC Processes and Server Processes. Ms. Evans has a degree in computer engineering and is currently responsible for driving Intel's new strategy to transform from a PC centric company to a data centric one. Previous to this role, Ms.
Evans was in charge of Intel's Mobile Communications Business. In her career, she has held a number of management positions at Intel and other companies in the semiconductor industry, including a stint in Israel. Given this background and expertise, we think She would make a great addition to the Supervisory Board. We would have liked to propose Ms. Evans for election here today at this meeting, but unfortunately, this was no longer possible.
This Jim Hogeman is now leaving the Supervisory Board. Evans will be appointed new Supervisory Board Member. At next year's shareholders meeting, the appointment will be formalized with you. But I hope Ms. Evans We'll have you backing at that time.
Since Jim offered to stay on until he found a successor, the handover promises to be seamless. Now we are supposed to applaud. Ladies and gentlemen, let me now comment on another important matter. Following the disappointing result of last year's vote regarding the Executive Board's compensation and USAP long term incentive programs, we took an in-depth look at possible reasons for the poor acceptance of our compensation package. There was also general criticism of our corporate covenants in this regard.
So we analyzed these aspects as well. Let me go into more details about these points. Shareholders have criticized, for example, that SAP didn't have any woman on the Executive Board and that the Supervisory Board won't have yet fulfilled the statutory quota. As you now can see, we've caught up on Del France with today and Jennifer's appointments to the Executive Board and Asha Evans' appointment to the advisory board, which would fulfill the quota. Another criticism was that we do not disclose supervisory board and committee meeting attendance records.
In response, the General and Compensation Committee has decided to publish relevant information in our next Supervisory Board report. Starting immediately, we'll also make relevant information available on our website. If and when you need information, you could have written a letter to me here. I'd pass it on to Luca Muchic, and he would have made the appropriate preparations. This is not a problem really and it doesn't have to be shifted to the next shareholders meeting.
Another criticism concerned the composition of the Wazi Board, specifically in the long terms of service of certain members and the insufficient international orientation of the supervisory board. Hence, we also expand the information in our Supervisory Board member profiles on our website. Want to stress clearly that the composition of SAP as a European company, unlike our previous legal format as AG is of outstanding the international designs, specifically at Supervisory Board level. As you can see from the individuals up here on stage, we have 3 employee representatives coming from countries other than Germany. And the same holds true among our shareholder representatives.
The Supervisory Board will of course continue to focus on internationalization and independence of candidates when it comes to future changes. By the way, Some investors and shareholder proxies had not considered Jim to be independent when he transitioned directly from the Executive Board to the Supervisory Board. As for the Executive Board package you ordered on last year, lack of transparency and insufficient explanation was the main criticism raised against it. We therefore use the NER approval rate as an opportunity to redesign our compensation report and present our compensation in a more transparent and understandable way. Some first feedback suggests that we've succeeded.
However, you also complained about some of the details of our executive board compensation. A major source contention was the lack of clarity on individual compensation components, such as the discretionary element for the Supervisory Board members and the short term incentive plan and the target achievement level for the individual elements. Again, we'll aim for more transparency see in this regard going forward as much as we can do without creating an advantage to our competitors. Looking at the long term incentive plan, LTI, investors complained about the fact that payouts could occur even if the SAP share price underperformed the peer group index, the group we compare ourselves with. I'd like to point out here that our peer group index is a very demanding comparator index.
In addition to Microsoft and Oracle, to name just a few. It includes established software companies as well as fast moving cloud vendors such as salesforce.com, Workday and ServiceNow. So beating this index in price development is a major challenge. However, we try to present the composition of this index more clearly in the future. There's nothing to hide.
Also criticized was the fact that we do not generally set a cap on severance payments in all cases of premature termination of Executive Board contracts as recommended in the German Corporate Governance Code. As you are aware, SAPA years now declared a deviation from this code recommendation. However, and our declaration of implementation explains this in detail. This does not mean that there's generally a term that do in fact foresee a cap on severance payments in the event of a change of control. If a member of the Executive Board leaves voluntarily as a payee, of course, no longer severance payments in the event of a change of control.
As a member of the grants demand in new rights such as under the LTI program. However, We do not believe it is practicable in executive board member contracts to cap severance pay in cases of premature termination by agreement. In such cases, a cap on severance pay stipulated in the appointment contract would be difficult for the company to enforce unilaterally. It will always to enforce unilaterally, it will always boil down to court proceedings. As I said, it's not possible for the company to make this unilateral regulation work, our deviation from the court in this regard is meant to ensure the necessary flexibility to find a fair and equitable solution.
I can assure you that the Supervisory Board will only make use of this possibility when appropriate and always with the best interest of shareholders in mind. Despite the narrow approval rate, shareholders did not question the general structure of our executive board compensation system in last year's meeting. So we retained it. We haven't made any fundamental changes to it because it comprises a relatively moderate base salary and a high proportion of long term variable compensation that is based on sustained company growth. And we see our compensation package is well placed in line with common practice of tax companies and other international competitors.
Also with respect to the amount of share of executive board member pay, which is currently in the focus of public interest, Again, the Supervisory Board thinks it is appropriate. In reviewing Board compensation, the Supervisory Board primarily considers whether the compensation's commensurate with SAP SaaS, internal reach, operational and financial performance and directness compensation at comparably international companies in the technology industry. The level of compensation has to be internationally competitive to remove committed successful work in a dynamic environment. As Europe's largest software company and an industry dominated by U. S.
American competitors, we face a particular challenge. And that is why the Supervisory Board last year commissioned an external comparative analysis of executive board compensation at other DAX 30 companies and our global peers. Based on that analysis, we increased the long term element to better ensure that our compensation is competitive with that of our international peers. Let me give you a few figures at this point. CEO, IBM, 30 CEO, HPE30 CEO, salesforce.com, 34, CEO, co CEO, Oracle 1, 41, KOSI ORRIKOL 2, 41.
Chairman ORRIKOL 41, 100 times the amount I am paid, but this is not for the record. Maybe you recall the figures because in 4 minutes I'll address our figures. Bill McDermott is now represented in the press as the CEO, Leads the salary ranking of tax listed companies. Sometimes it's €13,000,000 or €15,000,000 as its annual income, which seems to be much more important than the success and the performance of Phil McDermott for our company. Let me emphasize that in this industry, quite different salaries are being paid to which I just alluded.
Let me also point out that the remuneration of Bill McDermott depends considerably on the development of the stock price of SAP. And there's a 4 year vesting period. So instead of being paid money at the end of the year, he has €1,500,000 of fixed salary, €2,500,000 of a bonus based on performance criteria, which determine performance throughout the year. And he is paid an LTI package, long term incentive package, which is not paid out, but on request of corporate governance rules or as a result of practice in U. S.
Startup companies is converted the CLTI's bonus is converted into shares, SAP shares, which are put in a safe. 4 years later, he may take them out And look at Yahoo! Or Google, what they're worth now. When issued, they were worth €7,600,000 for 2016. What they'll be worth in 4 years' time, we don't know.
They may be worth much less if SAP doesn't do a good job or there will be a worldwide crisis or they may have risen clearly if SAP will be doing a super job. And Bill should, of all, be reminded of letting SAP grow in terms of shareholder value. So is receiving $12,000,000 How this is going to develop depends on the stock market. If there's a positive development, your shares will develop positively too. In a positive development case, the institutionalized investors will also benefit.
Now those in Berlin sat down thinking again saying, If it grows very strongly, if stock prices soar, then please, when we take the shares out of the safe, we'll have to have another look at their growth. If it's more than 300%, Why don't you cut off a bit here and there? Well, I fail to understand the idea, but why Don't you cut off a bit here and there? Well, I fail to understand the idea, but we followed that and said, fine if the increase is above 200%, triple share price will apply a cap. And this cap needs to be listed in the annual report.
It's the 41,000,000. So should it ever happen that the pay of 2016 and 4 years time because of explosion of the stock price still would have 41,000,000 then you would have more than doubled the value of your stocks twice. And the shareholder who complained to attention to this would have made a bit more than €2,000,000,000 not bad at all. That we did the right thing. So that Bill won't think of letting the stocks soar briefly, giving them a good bonus.
No, it should be high up, still continue rising in 4 years' time because will go on next year. I think that is a very good system. To explain the course of the 'fourteen. This year performed so well that if we were to take the stock out of the Save Now, It would have risen 18%. And we can say for 2016, Bill would have received EUR 40,000,000, which you did, only 12.
And the balance is the long term development of SAP's stock price, for which I assume responsibility on behalf of you, the shareholders, to make sure that the shareholder value is at least maintained or increased and that a decent dividend will be paid. The development of these LTR shares in USA It's only a matter of the development of the stock price. The executive board can help. The Supervisory Board will make sure that the proper members of the Executive Board perform and we'll hear from Bill McDermott how things develop. The value presented in the compensation report is merely the relevant fair value of the virtual stocks on the ground date and can therefore deviate from the amount that is ultimately paid out.
I explained the 4 year period. I explained Numbers? Should there be such a sensational development? I think it will end it. And of course, our staff as well.
Then the framework of the stock savings programs, Luca. The present figure is about €1,000,000,000 Luca, what you have? After the Q1, we announced this year that it's between €150,000,000 €1,100,000,000 of stock orientated remuneration reserved for The staff members, well, that also needs some applause. It was criticized in Europe, strangely enough, the criticism that it would reduce profit. In the U.
S, the attitude was quite different. Work is being performed by the 85,000 staff members. The executive board only is the right course. And the supervisory board offers their advice. So The staff members must not be forgotten.
And then If we come back to this very hypothetical case, you shouldn't hope that it would ever occur, Apple succeeded. I don't think that in 4 years' time, we will triple share price. But should it ever happen, staff members will also will have a triplication of he shares allotted to them. I hope that I've explained things so that everybody understood. Look, I'm not sure if you said, this is the way it's expressed in the annual report.
I as a professor took the liberty of trying to explain it in my words. I hope I've been able to clear almost all these issues, what variable remuneration looks like, why it's kept in this funny way. Well, We owe this to those who think about controlling a joint stock corporation. We of the Supervisory Board feel that this remuneration of the executive board is an adequate basis For achieving our goal of making SAP the world leader in the cloud with the current leadership team. Bill is going to talk about this in a minute.
We believe the compensation package offers the right incentives reflects SAP's global orientation and secures the competitiveness of our company. An opinion had also been obtained from an external compensation consultant to confirm the appropriateness of the compensation. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll now ask Bill McDiarmid to address him.
Welcome. The video message you just watched tells a powerful story. Michael Dell built one of the most significant companies in the world. And now For more than 350,000 customers in a 193 countries, SAP is the trusted innovator. As you will hear in my remarks today, our customers or creating value for you, our shareholders.
From this position of immense strength, We will discuss the very bright future of SAP. And this is especially important when you consider our unique past. SAP's distinguished chairman, Hassel Plattner is a once in a generation innovator. And together with his cofounders, He gave us a legacy of excellence that we work to honor each and every day. Thank you, Hasso Plattner.
To help carry that legacy forward, I proudly welcome Adaire Fox Martin And Jennifer Morgan to the executive board of SAP, congratulations, Adaire and Jen. Dear chairman, dear supervisory board members, Thank you for your continued support and confidence. Nothing that we achieve would be possible Without the 85,571 women and men of SAP, Now let's discuss our past, Present and future. I'll begin by looking back. In 2010, We set out to make SAP the world's most innovative company.
In 2010, We set out to make SAP the world's most innovative company. Coming out Of the financial crisis of 2,008,009, we asked hard questions. How do we remain relevant to our customers? How do we increase our value to the world economy. And we wanted to build upon the 76% of transactions that touched an SAP system.
I mean, after all, the biggest commercial enterprises for health care, education, and safety. And on that basis, we made the bold decision that have guided us ever since. We did 2 important things to put this company, Your company on a strong sustainable path. 1st, We set a vision to help the world run better and improve people's lives. This And second, we set a strategy to accelerate SAP as a profitable growth company.
We strengthened SAP's existing products in business application to a new database To handle the world's big data, SAP HANA. Thank you, Hassel. We acquired the best cloud companies so SAP would lead the new era of cloud computing in the 21st century. And overall, at a time when the technology industry was changing fast, SAP was the most decisive company to declare an ambition for growth. And that's why we more than tripled the addressable market From 110,000,000,000 to over 440,000,000,000 Big Market.
Please consider the following metrics since 2,009. SAP's total revenue has more than doubled. Our operating profit We are recognized by Dow Jones as the most sustainable company in the software industry. To gender diversity. As a result of all this progress, Congratulations, dear shareholders, and congratulations SAP.
Thank you. Last year, we continued our strong momentum. 2016 was one of the best years in SAP history. The figures I will share with you Are all non IFRS at constant currencies, unless I state otherwise? Because SAP is a geographically diverse company, our results on a global basis are more insulated New cloud bookings, the key measure for SAP's sales success in the cloud, increased 31% to €1,150,000,000 Now listen to this.
When you think about contracts that were signed but not yet recognized fully, 5,400,000,000 by year end. And for the full year Thank you. That's our cloud company powered by HANA. And for the full year, operating profit was €6,600,000,000 And we once again, in this case, achieved the the raised full year outlook. Our IFRS earnings per share increased 19% to €3.4.
SAP's rapidly expanding cloud business, Together with solid growth in support revenue, continued to drive the share of more predictable revenue to new heights. Overall, We were the only business software company to grow our cloud business, We are also intensely focused on the profitability targets, especially between 2018 2020. As the businesses grow, the share of renewals increases. Thus, We decided in 2015 to accelerate our investments, Do weigh on the margin in the short term. But as you can see in this graphic, With investments phasing out this year, we will improve profitability through 2020.
As ever, the full story of SAP's success in 2016 In SAP's social and environmental performance, we are further strengthening the company For the future, strengthening the company for the future. For example, We have calculated that every 1% change in employee engagement has a €50,000,000 impact on our profit. So we are especially happy Thank you. This engagement stems From the high trust that exists between our people and our leaders. How do we know?
We keep a leadership trust score to measure this, and it increased 5 percentage points last year alone. We also found that every 1 percentage point decrease and carbon emissions has a positive €5,000,000 effect on operating profit. Thank you. Thank you. We're going even further as we recently announced that SAP will be carbon neutral by 2025.
So whether in our financial, social, or environmental performance, 2016 was the latest year of validation for SAP's vision and strategy. So, dear shareholders, I humbly suggest to you that these results profitable, sustainable growth company. Thank you. Now please allow me to give you an update on our plans to secure SAP's bright future. Last year, we began to discuss the concept of digital business.
You probably have heard this described as Industry 4.0 here in Germany. In simple terms, digital innovation involves the use of data from many sources To help businesses run better. Think about this. Every 2 days, The world creates as much data as existed in the world From the beginning of time until 2,003,
every 2 days. Wow.
So for a business owner, the challenge to make intelligent use of this information driven digital businesses. When you consider how SAP products do this, I would offer you the following framework. 1st, SAP is one of the fastest growing database companies in the world. Too many businesses are still unable to use big data. You know why?
It's trapped in these old database systems that were designed by legacy companies In the 20th century, that's why SAP HANA was the most successful and significant Inventions in the IT history. Amazing. And only with this groundbreaking In memory database platform can SAP give our customers the tools that they need To compete in this digital economy. So instead of waiting days or weeks To analyze information, businesses can now do this instantaneously, thanks to SAP HANA. Thousands of customers have adopted SAP HANA, making it the fastest growing product in our industry.
We will continue to accelerate the mass adoption of this transformational product in the years ahead. Can't thank Hassell enough. 2nd, SAP is a leader in cloud business applications and analytics. The SAP HANA architecture enabled us to build a new State of the art portfolio of business applications, the flagship of which is SAP S4HANA, which we have described as the core system for a digital business. Now we all remember the early days of enterprise resource planning, or ERP.
The R3 ERP system standardized business processes and captured the imagination of the world. From r 3, we have evolved to the future, which is now We have evolved to the future, which is now S4. And you'll be happy to know that we even protected shareholder value by avoiding the need for expensive marketing consultants. You see, r became s, and 3 became 4. Thus, SAP Rather than describe how businesses are benefiting from SAP S4HANA, let's hear it from one of SAP's dynamic customers.
As you saw in the video, SAP S4HANA is already changing the way our customers run. What's important, dear shareholders, is that we are still in the very early days of the SAP S4HANA opportunity. To date, we have more than 5,800 customers running the SAP S4HANA system. This means that more than 80% of SAP's ERP customers and many thousands of net new customers can adopt The solution in the years ahead. This is a major growth opportunity for SAP.
Our portfolio of business applications does not end with our core ERP system either. We have many best in class applications to help our customers run their businesses. One such example is how businesses engage with their consumers. Many of us here today have purchased products from our smart devices. Sometimes we visit retail stores.
Other times, we may buy through a 3rd party website. Think of how difficult it is for businesses To know who we are or where we are. With SAP Hybris, With SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Fieldglass, we are engaging the total workforce, and only SAP can do this. Let's hear from another customer who is succeeding with SAP. These customer testimonials give us a powerful view of why SAP's businesses are growing so much.
The momentum applies to many additional areas, including procurement with SAP Ariba For our customers in their digital boardroom, this brings SAP systems to life, enabling our customers to predict futures, simulate new business ideas in real time, and reinvent business models altogether. Finally, we have the SAP Cloud Platform. Our platform as a service offering is a solution for developers to build new business applications. We want everyone to know in clear terms that SAP is a platform company. With our platform, we can help SAP customers adopt the latest breakthroughs.
The Internet of Everything, machine learning, and blockchain are 3 categories of modern innovation where we see fast growing interest. SAP has the best in class developers fully activated on these new innovations. The SAP Cloud Platform makes it possible to quickly strengthen our existing applications, keeping our install base very happy. You have already seen many large technology companies partnering with us on our platform. These brands include Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Siemens.
These are just prominent examples. There's hundreds of others. We will continue to scale our platform to drive new innovation and future growth. In summary, You can see that SAP has a comprehensive strategy, a state Of the art modern in memory database, best of breed business applications in the cloud, and a cloud platform that is building next generation solutions, all with an intuitive, Beautiful experience for our users, delivered with industry domain expertise that our customers have grown to expect from SAP, and they are protected by the industry's most most trusted service and support
to
do business with. And once again, this breadth and depth is unique to SAP. The work of SAP always begins looking around corners for the next frontiers of innovation. In our SAP Innovation Centers here in Germany and around the world, We have teams working to invent the next big breakthroughs. They are conducting And with the current market capitalization of over €110,000,000,000 The market recognizes our innovation strategy.
The SAP stock increased nearly 30% Since beginning of 2016, as we have continued to hit new highs in our share price in 20 17, SAP remains a rock solid investment. We firmly believe our shareholders should benefit from SAP's success. Therefore, For 2016, the executive board and the supervisory board proposed to raise the dividend by another 9% to €1.25 per share. This represents a dividend payout of approximately €1,500,000,000 And a payout ratio of 41%. You will be asked to vote on this dividend payout later in today's meeting.
As I move to my closing remarks, I'd like to discuss our vision and purpose to help the world run better and improve people's lives. This is the unifying vision that we declared back in 2010, as I know you remember. Plans. You see, we believe that the world's greatest challenges are also the world's greatest opportunities, and that's why we have invested To make SAP a responsible corporate citizen and a leader, We are focused on 3 areas, the economy, the environment, and society. For the economy, we are dedicated to training workers for the jobs of tomorrow.
Our website, open.sap.com, offers education programs So that anyone can learn about digital technologies and improve. To date, More than 1,000,000 people have participated in these online courses. Our university alliances program is working with 2,000 universities To train future graduates with the digital skills that they need to compete. We are teaching young people in Germany, Africa, and Latin America to code and sell software. Now more than ever, this global economy needs leading companies like SAP to help all people See the new opportunities on the horizon.
For the environment, we want our company To help protect our precious planet, we have actually seen customers using SAP Hana to preserve the Amazon rainforest. Industry 4.0 breakthroughs are strengthening the agricultural industry everywhere. And finally, society as a whole. SAP technology will strengthen the health care system. As you know, at NCT in Heidelberg, SAP HANA is changing the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, helping to save lives.
The same platform is extending now globally to the American Society of Clinical Oncology And a universe of start up companies globally, we are breaking down the barriers for all people to access innovation and live better lives. Our autism at work program is bringing amazing new talent to SAP. Yes. And our inclusion programs are strengthening Our uniquely diverse culture. Here's a video that'll help you understand SAP's overall This is a heartwarming example of SAP's legacy and potential.
By sharing our amazing colleagues with the world, We have made a profound investment in its future. Please note The agenda items on the screen, you'll be asked to vote on in today's meeting. Okay. You look good. Dear shareholders, In closing, I would emphasize that trust is the ultimate human currency.
Because of your trust, SAP is a successful company. We have assembled We have created 1,000 and 1,000 of new jobs and 1,000 and 1,000 more customers than any time in our history. And in return for your trust, We will continue to work very, very hard for SAP. And already, We are off to a fast start in 2017. Our first quarter revenue growth exceeded market expectations.
This and our people power give us total confidence In our 2017 guidance and our 2020 ambition, Ladies and gentlemen, it is my personal honor to serve as the CEO of SAP. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of my executive board colleagues, I thank you for your trust, your confidence, and your support of SAP. Dylan Dunk,