Software AG CFO says fourth-quarter order pipeline stronger

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German business software maker Software AG expects the positive trend in its business to continue, its finance chief said on Wednesday.

"Q4 is always the strongest quarter for IT companies. But we see that our pipeline is stronger than last year," Software AG's Chief Financial Officer Arnd Zinnhardt told Reuters.

"We expect a slight positive development in the fourth quarter. Our predictions now indicate that we will have 110-120 million euros ($140.1-152.9 million US dollar) in license orders."

Zinnhardt also said he expected that operating margins would continue to improve in the coming quarters.

Software AG's third-quarter operating margin climbed to 30.5 percent, up 7.5 percentage points from the second quarter.

(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Kirsti Knolle)