German software maker SAP will remain an independent company in the long term, its chief executive told a German newspaper.

"I believe so, absolutely," Bill McDermott told weekly Euro am Sonntag in an interview published on Saturday.

"The best way for a company to stay independent is to grow and to have a good market capitalization," he added.

With a market capitalization of 70.5 billion euros ($86.6 billion), SAP is the fifth-largest company in Germany's large cap DAX index.

SAP had held talks about a potential merger with software giant Microsoft in 2004 but discussions were scrapped because of the complexity of any deal and the subsequent integration of the companies.