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Frederic Boulan

Director in Equity Research at Bank of America

Frederic Boulan is a Director in Equity Research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch International, specializing in European telecoms and technology sectors with direct coverage of leading companies such as SAP, Orange, and The Sage Group. He covers 22 stocks and maintains a published analyst performance track record featuring a 47% success rate and 0.30% average return per transaction, with notable calls like a 35.7% gain on Sage Group. Boulan began his research career in 2002, held senior analyst positions at Morgan Stanley and Nomura, and joined Bank of America in 2014 after consulting roles at A.T. Kearney and Stern Stewart. He holds an ESCP business degree, is a CFA charterholder, and his team has earned top rankings in surveys such as Institutional Investor and Extel.

Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership

Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership • Q3 2025

Question

Frederic Boulan from Bank of America questioned SAP's competitive standing against Oracle, particularly in light of Oracle's strategic shift towards infrastructure offerings, and sought an update on SAP's positioning.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein stated that SAP's focus remains on value creation at the upper part of the stack (software and cloud solutions), leveraging infrastructure partners rather than building data centers. He emphasized SAP's winning formula of apps, high-quality data (BDC), and applied AI, which is resonating with customers. CFO Dominik Asam added that SAP's cloud ERP suite growth, when converted to USD, shows even stronger market share gains compared to competitors.

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Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership • Q3 2025

Question

Frederic Boulan with Bank of America inquired about SAP's competitive position against Oracle, particularly in light of Oracle's pivot towards infrastructure offerings, and how SAP views its own strategic positioning.

Answer

Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, stated that SAP's strategy of focusing on value creation at the upper part of the stack (software and cloud solutions) with strong infrastructure partners is proven and effective, eliminating the need to build data centers. He emphasized using LLMs rather than training them, and partnering with LLM providers to build applied AI agents on SAP's platform. Dominik Asam, CFO of SAP, added that infrastructure as a service is a small part of SAP's cloud revenues and highlighted that SAP's cloud ERP suite growth of 31% constant currency is even higher in U.S. dollars, outperforming competitors.

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Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Frederic Boulan of Bank of America sought more detail on the prudent macro outlook, specifically how demand is affecting the Current Cloud Backlog (CCB) for the rest of the year, given headwinds in the US public sector and manufacturing.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein noted that while the slight CCB deceleration was expected, H2 confidence is supported by strong pipeline coverage equivalent to the prior year. However, he highlighted uncertainty around closing mega-deals due to elongated approval cycles in sectors impacted by trade policy concerns. He stressed the resiliency of SAP's broad portfolio as a buffer.

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Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership • Q1 2025

Question

Frederic Boulan of Bank of America asked about the outlook for EBIT and free cash flow, the drivers of the strong Q1 cloud margin, and future plans for capital returns after the current buyback program.

Answer

CFO Dominik Asam attributed the broad margin improvement to efficiencies across G&A, R&D, and selling expenses. He confirmed the current €5 billion share repurchase will be completed and stated that future capital allocation will involve either M&A at reasonable valuations or a new capital return program, supported by strong cash generation.

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Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership • Q3 2024

Question

Frederic Boulan of BofA Securities asked for the specific drivers of the Cloud ERP Suite's acceleration, whether SAP is ahead of its Current Cloud Backlog (CCB) target, and for an outlook on cloud gross margin evolution.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein attributed Cloud ERP growth to large customer RISE deals, strong net-new wins, and platform ecosystem extensions. CFO Dominik Asam noted that CCB growth is on the right trajectory for the 2025 ambition, even with headwinds from the transactional business. He added that the cloud gross margin is on a clear path toward the 75% ambition for 2025, driven by scale and operational efficiencies.

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Frederic Boulan's questions to SAP (SAP) leadership • Q2 2024

Question

Frederic Boulan asked for clarification on the commentary that Q4 is 'decisive' for 2025 cloud growth, noting the contrast between the bullish tone and tougher upcoming comparisons.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein explained that Q4 is always SAP's largest quarter for bookings, and while the pipeline is strong, execution is paramount. CFO Dominik Asam added that the comment is an acknowledgment of the difficult market others are reporting. He stressed that while SAP is not currently seeing those issues, the company wants to remain prudent and not get 'carried away' before results are delivered.

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