Media: German SAP cannot leave Russia yet

MOSCOW, 24 Oct — PRIME. German software maker SAP is postponing its exit from the Russian market as the company has not found a buyer for its assets in Russia, Reuters reports citing sources.

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“SAP will miss the deadline to exit Russia until the end of the year as the German software group was unable to find a buyer for the division,” sources told the agency.

CFO Luka Muchic said in July that SAP would complete the exit before the end of the year and incur costs of 350 million euros, the agency said. Even though SAP has closed its data centers and cloud business in the country, SAP still has annual maintenance contracts in Russia that it must maintain or face legal risks. SAP has stopped providing support services to companies subject to Western sanctions, the sources said.

According to Russian law, employees who manage the local division of SAP – SAP CIS – may be personally liable for any breach of contract.

“SAP is fully committed to winding down our operations in Russia as soon as possible. Recent legal changes in Russia, however, have limited our ability to take the final steps of our departure,” a SAP spokesman told the agency. According to him, the company has significantly reduced its staff in Russia from 1250 people, by the end of the year there will be less than 100 of them.

In April, the company announced that it was phasing out all cloud operations in Russia and intended to stop supporting and servicing local products.