German group SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, said it expected operating profit to rise as much as 11.5 percent this year, more than market expectations.

We have significant momentum going into 2012, SAP said on Wednesday as it published its full financial results for 2011.

Full-year 2012 operating profit will rise to 5.05-5.25 billion euros ($6.6-$6.8 billion) from 4.71 billion in 2011. The outlook compared with a consensus of 4.91 billion euros, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

SAP had already reported a better than expected rise in fourth-quarter sales and profit on January 13.

It attributed the strong performance to demand for its biggest software products and growing demand for its HANA offering -- which allows companies to analyze business data quickly -- and said it had won market share overall.

Revenue from software and software-related services will increase by 10-12 percent in the full year, of which up to 2 percentage points will be contributed by recently acquired SuccessFactors.

Most analysts had said they expected SAP to aim for 6-10 percent revenue growth from software and software-related services this year, and the operating margin widening by 50-100 basis points.

SAP agreed to buy SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion last month to keep up keep up with rivals in the race for cloud-computing business. Its 2012 earnings will be diluted by the purchase, which will have a positive impact from 2013 on.

($1 = 0.7704 euro)

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Software