Germany's Software AG aims for 4-6 percent currency-adjusted growth in sales this year, the company's chief executive was quoted as saying in a German newspaper on Saturday. Karl-Heinz Streibich told Boersen-Zeitung that licence sales in the fourth quarter had "met expectations" - without specifying whose expectations - and that market conditions at the turn of the year were somewhat better than a year earlier.
Streibich reiterated that a dividend was likely for 2004 but declined to say what the payout would be. Streibich said the company's traditional mainframe business which showed surprising strength in recent quarters should stabilise at "high levels".
The paper said the company's sales target meant that the XML integration business, designed to help companies integrate software, would have to grow by a double-digit percentage.
It said that as part of its acquisitions strategy, Software AG would look for complementary technologies that could help reduce the time it took to bring its products to market, a reiteration of the company's position.