German software company SAP has turned its legal form to a European Company (Societas Europaea, SE). The German subsidiary, as a consequence, has changed its name to SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG.

With this step, SAP is underscoring its international nature, says the company. The SAP supervisory board now holds five of 18 members that are of non-German background: three on the shareholder representative side, Pekka Ala-Pietla (Finland), Bernard Liautaud (France) and Jim Snabe (Denmark), as well as Catherine Bordelon (France) and Steffen Leskovar (Slovenia) as representatives of the employees. In the composition of the Supervisory Board, SAP is one of the top three international companies of the German Blue Chips, DAX 30.

Employee contracts will continue as before and shop agreements are being retained, says SAP. Shareholders’ rights have not been altered by the new legal form, and the conversion also has no impact on stock exchange trading of SAP shares. SAP shares are listed on the stock exchanges of New York, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin and can be traded there. The headquarters and registered company seat of SAP SE remain in Walldorf, Germany.

[Image courtesy: SAP]