With a boost from strong growth in its e-commerce and related software products, SAP SE this week reported second-quarter results that topped analysts’ estimates as the company put a weak start to the year behind it and closed more software deals despite political turmoil in Europe.

The company sells its SAP Hybris Commerce software and related products under its Customer Engagement and Commerce practice, which it says helps companies across many industries, including manufacturing, telecommunications, retail and government agencies, accept and fulfill e-commerce orders. “CEC saw strong double-digit growth across its on-premise and cloud offerings in the second quarter” ended June 30, the company said.

In a complementary part of its product offerings—the Business Networks products that enable client companies to interact and conduct commerce in networks—SAP said revenue from cloud subscriptions and support services increased 21% over the prior-year quarter.

SAP’s operating profit for the second quarter was 1.52 billion euros ($1.67 billion), topping the 1.45 billion-euro (US$1.57 billion) average of analysts’ estimates collected by Bloomberg. Sales were 5.24 billion euros (US$4.75 billion), up 5% from a year earlier.

CEO Bill McDermott said he’s positioning SAP’s software to help companies remake sales plans and purchasing processes in light of U.K. citizens’ vote last month to leave the European Union. “Any time there’s a pressure point where things are changing, business leaders are looking for a solution,” he said in an interview.

New software license revenue, an important predictor of earnings potential from support contracts, rose 10% to 1.04 billion euros (US$943 million). That followed a 13% decline in the first quarter, which the company blamed on a failure to close deals.

The CEO credited lower costs after last year’s job cuts for propping up the bottom line. “We closed any deal that wasn’t closed in Q1 and we had an extraordinary Q2,” he said.

Overall cloud subscriptions and support revenue in the quarter rose 41% to 721 million euros (US$654 million). SAP said it performed particularly well in Europe despite Brexit-related uncertainty, chalking up double-digit percentage growth in software licenses revenue from major markets such as France.

SAP shares gained 3.95% to 74.48 euros (US$67.55) as of 12:20 p.m., July 20, in Frankfurt, and as much as 4.7% in earlier trading, the biggest intraday gain since last October. The company’s market valuation is 91.5 billion euros (US$83.0 billion).

Brexit Impact

“I haven’t seen big global multinationals say, ‘I’ve changed my business strategy as a result of Brexit,’” McDermott said on Bloomberg television. He added that SAP would be “opportunistic” about smaller acquisitions. “The good news about SAP is organically we’re growing very fast,” he said.

McDermott said the company would be opportunistic about acquisitions but that investors are pleased with its organic growth. He said SAP had looked at recently-acquired business software companies Qlik Technologies Inc. and Marketo Inc. but passed on them.

“They were just not at our threshold of excellence to justify an acquisition by SAP at any price,” the CEO said.

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is planning to buy business intelligence software provider Qlik for $3 billion, while Marketo, a provider of marketing automation technology, is to be bought by Vista Equity Partners in a deal valued at about $1.79 billion.

Adding Customers

SAP is trying to move its customer base to its latest S/4 Hana suite of financial and operational planning software while fighting off challenges from Oracle Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. SAP said it added more than 500 S/4 customers during the quarter and now has 3,700 businesses running the suite.

“SAP performed better compared to its peers in terms of growth and profitability,” Harald Schnitzer, an analyst at DZ Bank AG, said in a note to clients. The restructuring and job elimination last year helped profit margin, he said.

SAP reiterated its 2016 forecast for adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of 6.4 billion euros to 6.7 billion euros (US$5.8 billion to US6.1 billion) at constant currencies. It expects cloud and software revenue to rise 6 to 8% this year from 17.23 billion euros (US$15.63 billion) in 2015.

Tech companies that specialize in selling to businesses have reported largely positive results in the past week. Microsoft Inc.’s quarterly sales and profit was above analysts’ estimates and doubled revenue from its Azure cloud-computing platform. Data-center software maker VMware Inc.’s profit and sales topped estimates. And IBM reported revenue growth in a key data analysis software unit.

IBM this week said revenue from its Cognitive Solutions products—including commerce software and related products like web analytics and network security systems—increased 3.5% year over year in the second quarter to $4.7 billion. It added that cloud-based products within these areas increased 54%. Total revenue, meanwhile, fell 3% year over year in the second quarter to $20.2 billion.

Michael Briest, an analyst at UBS, said SAP has been less vulnerable than other software companies to platforms offered by Microsoft, Google and Amazon, which offer databases and application-connecting middleware in the cloud. Most customers run SAP’s Hana database on their own computers and the company’s middleware exposure is relatively low.

SAP struck deals with Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. this spring to broaden use of its software. SAP will develop apps for Apple’s iPhone and iPad and make it easier for its customers and consultants to write native iOS software. The German company is also making more utilities available on Microsoft’s Azure platform for cloud computing.

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