SAP's underlying operating profit soared 10 percent to a total of 4.47 billion euros ($6.1 billion) in 2013, the German business software giant announced Friday as it released preliminary full-year figures.

The rise in profit came on the back of 4 percent higher revenues which jumped to 16.8 billion euros, the firm said. Profits, however, would have been even higher if they hadn't been reduced by a strong euro which dented earnings in Asia, notably in Japan, it added.

Sales were strong specifically in SAP's core business software division, the firm said, climbing by 11 percent to an exchange rate-adjusted 14 billion euros. In addition, revenue from SAP's cloud computing services had grown stronger than expected, adding 787 million euros to the result.

"We are one of the few technology firms in the world which have successfully mastered the switch to cloud computing," SAP's co-Chief Executives Bill McDermot and Jim Hagemann Snabe said in a statement.

That meant that SAP's full-year earnings target for 2013 had been achieved, they added. Stock markets, however, apparently had expected a higher result. SAP shares plunged 1.3 percent at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Friday.

uhe/kms (Reuters, AFP, dpa)