Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to the Zensar Technologies Q3 FY26 earnings conference call hosted by HDFC Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will remain in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal the operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone telephone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I will now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities for opening remarks.
Thank you, and over to you, Amit.
Amit Chandra
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone.
On behalf of HDFC Securities, I welcome you all to the Zensar Technologies quarter three FY26 earnings call. We have with us Mr.
Manish Tandon, CEO and Managing Director; Mr. Pulkit Bhandari, Chief Financial Officer; and other members from the senior management team.
Before I hand over the call to Manish, I would like to highlight that the safe harbor statement on the second slide of the earning presentation is assumed to be read and understood. Thank you, and over to you, Manish.
Manish Tandon
Thank you, Amit. Hello, good morning, afternoon, good evening, everyone, and first of all, wish all of you a very, very happy 2026.
Thank you for taking time to join us today to discuss Zensar's financial results for the third quarter of FY26. With me on this call are the usual suspects.
We have Pulkit Bhandari, our CFO; Vijay [Semwal?] , our COO; and Vivek Ranjan, our CHRO.
One of the best operating teams in the industry is on the call with you. Zensar delivered a modest yet resilient revenue performance this quarter.
This was supported by healthy volume growth, and I want to emphasize that, and also emphasize that this was predominantly driven from offshore. While the resulting mix shift coupled with typical seasonality and furlough-related softness moderated our revenue growth momentum, our disciplined execution ensured continued operating strength.
Notably, our profitability metrics, order book, and cash position all reached their strongest levels in recent quarters, underscoring the discipline of our execution and the robustness of our financial foundation. We begin 2026 with a singular commitment: to lead as a truly AI-native technology services company, redefining the value we deliver.
Guided by a strong execution framework, nearly 60% of our workforce is AI-certified and 20% of this year's order book is AI-influenced, demonstrating the tangible value we deliver through our strategic investments across the entire AI stack, from experience to engineering to engagement. Moving towards our financial performance, the company posted revenue of $160.5 million, a year-over-year growth of 2.2% in reported currency and 1.3% in constant currency.
In INR terms, this equates to year-over-year growth of 7.9% and sequential QoQ growth of 0.7%. On a year-over-year reported currency basis, revenue grew by 12.2% in banking and financial services, 5.2% in healthcare and life sciences, while in manufacturing, consumer services, and also in TMT vertical, revenue declined by 2.7% and 11.6% respectively.
We are pleased to inform that after absorbing the impact of furloughs, our gross profit improved to 33.7%, sequential growth of 270 basis points. Our EBITDA improved to 17.4%, sequential growth of 200 basis points.
Net cash and cash equivalents positions improved to $322.4 million, sequential growth of $29.4 million. Order book improved to $180.2 million, sequential growth of 13.6%.
This, coupled with industry-leading 9.5% attrition, demonstrates our commitment to disciplined execution and our enriching culture that fosters long-term relationships while continuing to execute our strategic priorities. With that, I will now invite Pulkit, our Chief Financial Officer, to provide an update on critical financial data.
Over to you, Pulkit.
Pulkit Bhandari
Thank you, Manish. Good day, everyone, and wish you a very happy new year.
Thank you all for joining this call. I will take you through some of the key business and financial metrics for the quarter ending December 25.
IT industry has been navigating a pivotal transformation driven by accelerated adoption of AI. Due to economic uncertainty, enterprises are prioritizing cost optimization and vendor consolidation over discretionary spend that leverages AI.
Client conversations have shifted decisively towards building AI-ready data foundations and outcome-based data analytics. We remain committed to delivering enterprise-grade solutions that align with client expectations and enable measurable business outcomes.
The reported revenue for the third quarter of financial year 26 stood at $160.5 million in USD terms, reflecting a growth of 2.2% YoY and a degrowth of 1.4% sequentially in reported terms. In constant currency terms, YoY revenue grew by 1.3% and sequentially it degrew by 1.3%.
Our EBITDA this quarter expanded by 200 basis points, sequentially driven by positive forex impact of 0.7%, improved offshore effort mix by 1.4%, leave utilization benefit of 1%, other operational efficiencies of 0.7%. This was offset partially by impact of furloughs to an extent of 1%, ESOP—and this is a full quarter of ESOP cost coming in—of 0.9%.
While we have expanded our margins, we continue to invest in augmenting capabilities, specifically around AI and sales. We maintain our mid-teen margin guidance.
Our PAT for the quarter stood at 13.9%. This includes an impact of INR 25 crores on account of new labor code changes.
We continue to monitor and assess the clarifications as we go into this new law changes. Some other key highlights: our order book for the quarter stood at $180.2 million; our book-to-bill ratio for the quarter is 1.12; cash, including investments, stood at $322.4 million with an impressive DSO of 71 days; our attrition improved to 9.5%; diluted EPS grew to 8.7% per share, which is 9.4% growth quarter-on-quarter.
The board has agreed to pay an interim dividend of 2.4 rupees per share this quarter. With that, I will now invite Vijay, our Chief Operating Officer, to comment further on Q3 FY26 results.
Vijayasimha Alilughatta
Thank you, Manish and Pulkit. Greetings, everyone.
I will now share details about our operational efficacy, service line performance, and AI journey. Our utilization for the quarter stood at 83.5%, which grew by 60 basis points YoY and decline of 130 basis points QoQ due to the season and furloughs.
The rigor associated with accelerated fulfillment and capability enrichment continued. We had a gross addition of 988 employees in the quarter.
Our voluntary attrition was 9.5%. This is the fourth successive quarter where our voluntary attrition has been below 10%.
The offerings from our service lines and industry services group continue to resonate well with our clients. The share of revenue from our service lines increased to 69% in Q3, which is 220 basis points higher YoY.
On a YoY reported currency basis, cloud infrastructure and security services grew by 10.9%, data engineering and analytics grew by 13.1%, products and platforms including CMO services grew by 3%, enterprise application services had a degrowth of 3.6%. The AI talent transformation initiative has seen significant growth in Q3.
Our transformative Ignite AI Academy has impacted 7,300-plus unique employees with over 10,000 course completions in AI, generative AI, and agentic AI. This demonstrates our unwavering commitment to developing future-ready talent at scale.
Industry-recognized certifications have also seen a strong uptake, thereby strengthening our technical credibility in the AI domain. The AI for leaders programs has gained significant traction, driving innovation and leadership in AI adoption.
We continue to deliver significant value to our clients in key AI engagements. A couple of examples of value delivered to clients are as follows: we have established a physical AI lab for a Fortune 50 client, which is focused on large-scale physical simulation and world model development.
The lab enables multi-agent simulation, synthetic data generation, and closed-loop training to build high-fidelity world models that reflect real-world dynamics. Leveraging ZensAI, our agentic AI platform, we delivered an end-to-end modernization assessment program for a prominent financial services client for its retail credit processing platform.
The engagement reverse-engineered 300-plus complex mainframe programs and interfaces and established an execution-ready roadmap, achieving up to 60% faster documentation, 50% faster rule extraction, and materially lower scoping risk. With that, we can now open the line for questions.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session.
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two.
Participants are requested to use their handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
We take the first question from the line of Nitin Padmanabhan from Investec. Please go ahead.
Nitin Padmanabhan
Hi, good morning, wishing you all a very happy new year. Congrats on the solid execution on margins despite the weakness.
Had a couple of questions. The first is, I think last quarter, Manish, you had mentioned an all-time high deal pipeline.
Just wanted your thoughts on the conversion there. Second, when do you think we start seeing consistent, predictable growth?
Where do you see the pain points lie today? Finally, I think what you mentioned on the AI side, saying 20% of the order book is AI-influenced, when we look at peers, people indicate reasonably higher numbers there.
Just wanted your thoughts there as well. Is it that we're sort of lagging there, or is it just a matter of classification?
Manish Tandon
Yeah. Let me answer the third question first.
When we say 20% of our order book is AI-influenced, we believe in tracking that only EN and NN can be AI-influenced. We do not believe that renewals can be AI-influenced.
If you take that number, then this 20% actually goes up to a very high number overall. Okay?
I think that is where most likely the disconnect is. Nitin, I don't want this to treat AI like people used to treat digital, that suddenly 100% of their revenues became digital overnight.
I don't want to do that. We are very disciplined in the way we report our AI-influenced order book.
The second question on areas of softness remains TMT. Okay?
Other sectors, there are plusses and minuses here and there. The area of weakness remains TMT.
While I point out to the area of weakness, I would say the area of strength remains financial services and insurance. Okay?
That. Third is, you said strong pipeline.
I just want to point out that while you guys are focusing too much on revenues, look at the volume growth also. Ultimately, the volume growth, what has happened this quarter also besides the furlough, is that there has been a change in the onsite mix.
We have done more work offshore. That is also reflected in the margin improvements that we have shown.
Also I think next quarter, as I think it is sustainable, if the volume growth is sustainable with the higher number of working days that we see, we should start seeing a reflection in revenue numbers also. I also want to point out that while revenue growth is very exciting for everyone, I'm a bit old school.
I still focus on the bottom line. We have grown year-over-year in dollar terms, we have shown 18.2% growth in bottom line.
In rupee terms, 24% 24.1% growth in rupee terms. As I said, I'm a bit old school.
I will not go in for revenues that don't lead to profitability and margins. As I have said before also, ultimately, we as a management team solve for shareholder value.
Shareholder value is a combination of revenue growth and EBITDA percentage. That is what we will continue to solve as we go forward.
Nitin Padmanabhan
No, sure. That's helpful, and I agree with that.
The only question is that I think at some point, growth will also become important, right? I think our thought process was that we will be in line with peers and higher than peers over a period of time from a growth perspective.
I was just asking from that angle. The profitability, I completely agree.
Profitability has been extremely strong. Obviously, growth ultimately feeds everything.
Just wanted your thought there on achieving higher than peer growth over time, yeah.
Manish Tandon
Nitin, Nitin, I absolutely agree with you. When as a management team when you know that this is a seasonally weak quarter, right?
This is a seasonally weak quarter for everyone. The best way of generating shareholder value in a quarter like this is to try and improve the bottom line, because top line is difficult.
Or you can achieve certain only certain levels of this. We are not saying that we are focused exclusively on bottom line.
We are actually very, very, very focused on top-line growth also, and God willing, we will start seeing the results soon. Having said in the interim, as as I said in the interim, I would just say when one says growth, one can look at profit growth or one can look at revenue growth.
I would rather look at profit growth than revenue growth, and on that front, I think we have delivered stupendously: 18.2% year-over- year-over-year growth in in dollar terms. I would challenge others to see if there anyone has delivered this kind of growth in profits.
Nitin Padmanabhan
Sure. Perfect.
Understood. Thank you so much, and wishing you the very best.
Manish Tandon
Thank you, Nitin, and yeah.
Operator
We take the next question from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities Limited. Please go ahead.
Amit Chandra
Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on a very strong margin expansion. You mentioned about that we saw the volume growth in this quarter.
If you can quantify what was the volume growth, just to give a context. Also, you mentioned that the stressed area is like TMT, which obviously has been there over the last 11-12 quarters now, and the YoY growth has been negative over the last 11 quarters.
How do we see the stress there in TMT? Whether it's an ongoing stress, and we don't have a visibility there, or we can assume that there is some light at the end of the tunnel, and we can see some recovery there in terms of the TMT, because earlier also you mentioned that ex of the top client or the TMT last year also, our growth was pretty healthy.
If you can throw some more color in terms of how the growth is ex of the stress in the large account.
Manish Tandon
I would say I would say see, we have been Amit, my challenge now to myself and the team is that can we deliver double-digit growth despite TMT not delivering? That is the challenge that we have taken up as a team.
There is no point in, today in the board meeting also, I said the same thing, that there is no point in, saying TMT, TMT, TMT. Let's get beyond it now.
Now, the proportion of TMT to the overall mix has come down from the past. That is what we want to want to look forward and look ahead, not on the basis of and still deliver try and deliver growth despite whatever happens in TMT.
As to TMT, my commentary has been consistent that we are seeing a lot of spend moving away from services to AI, capital capital investment towards AI, particularly in buying hardware, hardware, etc. I am not looking at TMT improving significantly.
Frankly, if TMT can stay flat for us, that will be good for us. As to the volume growth, Vijay or Vijay, maybe you can comment on it, or Pulkit, you can comment on it, the exact numbers?
Pulkit Bhandari
Yeah. We had a volume growth of 3.1% at offshore and overall of 1.7% that translated to 1.7%.
There was a decline at onsite because of movement from onsite to offshore.
Amit Chandra
Okay. Coming on to the strong areas, which is BFSI, and also we have seen some recovery in the MCS.
If you can throw some light in terms of specifically BFSI, what's happening there in terms of clients, because BFSI has been a strong area where most of the peers and where the growth is coming for the sector, and obviously we are also seeing some strong growth there. If you can split it between what's happening between US and Africa, because we have a strong presence in BFSI in Africa also.
If you can give us some insights there. Also on the manufacturing, are we seeing some reversals in terms of the priorities in terms of clients?
Can we confidently say that the worst is behind for manufacturing?
Manish Tandon
Okay. On BFSI, we are seeing decent amount of growth, secular growth, be it in Europe, be it in Africa, be it in US, and particularly in the US, we are seeing reasonable growth.
That is your first question. On manufacturing, as I have said before, our exposure to manufacturing is fairly limited.
Hence, we don't get impacted too much by manufacturing. What we call as manufacturing and consumer services is primarily retail.
There, this quarter is the seasonal sort of quarter. Retail 40% of sales happen in this quarter.
Most retailers ramp up. We are seeing some amount of green shoots, I would not say good amount of green shoots, but some amount of green shoots in this sector.
Life sciences, although you're not asked, healthcare and life sciences, there we are seeing continued headwinds, and primarily because in one or two one or two accounts, we have been at the wrong end of a consolidation.
Amit Chandra
Okay. Sir, lastly on the margins front, obviously we have seen healthy growth.
Is there any one-off component in terms of the margin expansion that we have seen? Obviously we are at the higher end of the guidance in terms of the mid-teens.
Are we planning to invest some of these gains back into fueling the growth? Also in terms of cash position, we have very healthy cash, which is 18-19% of market cap right now.
How do you plan to give it back to shareholders, and in terms of acquisitions, what are our plans?
Manish Tandon
There are lots of questions, Amit. Let Pulkit answer all the financial questions.
I think between Pulkit and Vijay, they are two people who are most responsible for delivering this. I think they should answer.
Pulkit, over to you.
Pulkit Bhandari
Sure. Amit, I think the way we look at basically margin is that part of it is structural improvement, part of it is basically specific to this quarter.
When you look at the overall expansion, there's a improved offshore effort mix, which is roughly around 1.4%, and that's the structural shift, and I would say slightly more long-term than anything else, which is going to stay. Yeah.
The benefits like leave utilization, some part of other operational efficiencies may actually go away next quarter. Yeah.
At the same time, our endeavor is, to answer your first part, we want to invest continuously in AI and sales. To that extent, basically, some of the expansion will go back and get plowed back in these two areas.
The long-term guidance still stays at mid-teens. Yeah.
At the same time, some of these improvements should basically sustain, and if not invested back, they'll help us expand the margins. The endeavor is to, of course, invest them back.
That's part one. Second, our cash position stays strong.
Our DSOs, as I called out, is strong. Our collections every quarter have been improving.
Overall, do we look at capital allocation ideas? Absolutely, yes.
Do we evaluate M&A situations? Yes, very actively.
We are very mindful in terms of how they will be accretive not just to the revenue, but also to the bottom line. Our decision making is centered around the ability of any idea which can help us, again, in the mid-term to long-term.
They're not short-term solutions. That's how we look at cash.
From you said distribution back to the shareholders, this quarter, again, we basically like last year same time, we had a interim dividend that we announced. This time it is 120%.
Last year it was roughly around 100% of the face value. We are improving in terms of our distribution ratios, and we would kind of do that balancing act between distribution and, of course, keeping cash for growth.
Amit Chandra
Sir. Thank you, and all the best for the coming quarters.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities.
Please go ahead.
Sandeep Shah
Hi, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a strong execution on margin in a difficult quarter.
Sir, the first question is when you joined, at that point in time itself, you were knowing that TMT could be a pained portfolio, especially because of a large account, client-specific issues. Any view why we were not able to compensate that by acting proactively in some of the other verticals?
Is it more to do with the portfolio mix outside BFSI and TMT, which is hurdling us in terms of a proactive aggression? Is it more to do with macro, or is it more to do with our sales aggression, where we are not able to act proactively in terms of adding more deals, more pipeline, converting more pipeline into deal wins and into revenue to compensate TMT?
Because now, as a percentage to sales, if I'm not wrong, it would have come down from high teens to closer to high single digit. Any view on this, and any change of gears in terms of acting aggressively on proactive basis?
Manish Tandon
Sandeep, you are assuming that the platform that I inherited—"I" means we, the management team inherited—was a stable managed services platform. That assumption is wrong.
What we inherited was really a slightly more advanced form of a staff augmentation company, to be very frank. We were grappling with multiple problems.
As I had said before this, if we didn't fix the margin issue first, then there will be no investment available to invest in the business to transform the business. That is why we took the important problems first.
We positioned the company in a fashion that it can take advantage now of the new trends and the new things that are happening. I'm very pleased to say that we are now in a position to really, be it M&A, be it investing in AI, be it launching new verticals, we have created the framework and the scaffolding in the organization to be able to do all those things.
TMT is also now less than 10% of our about 10% of our revenues, if I'm not mistaken. Its impact is going to be less going forward.
That's the other thing. Almost all the sectors were struggling when we joined.
Please do not forget that the run rate of the company, when I took over, was $140 million a quarter, if I'm not mistaken. From there, we have come a long way.
I feel very confident that now the company is really positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that the environment is presenting.
Sandeep Shah
No, no, fair enough. Sir, great reply to the question.
Sir, just in terms of further to what Nitin had asked and you have replied, you said we generally prioritize on a profitable business. That's a good strategy because what investor wants is a EPS growth as well.
In that scenario, why we are not increasing our EBITDA margin goalpost? Because at one end, if we are saying we want to become profitable, at the other end, we are saying we are investing, but that is not yielding growth turnaround yet.
Why not increase the margin goalpost, where currently the margin is much higher than the goalpost?
Manish Tandon
Sandeep, again, see, I outlined this philosophy very early in my tenure, that I am trying to maximize shareholder value. For me, maximizing shareholder value, in some cases, may mean lower revenue, but higher margin.
In most cases, it means higher revenues and lower margin. Okay?
At this stage, as I was mentioning to Nitin, when you go into a quarter, and you realize that this is going to be a soft quarter for everyone, what can you do to maximize shareholder value? You can only show up and execute much better, execute to higher margin.
That's what we have done. If this quarter I get a large deal, for example, which is not margin-accretive in the first year, it gives me that cushion to take up that large deal, even though it might not be accretive in the first year, right?
Margin-accretive in the first year. While we can view it from a quarter-to-quarter lens, but as a leader, I think, and as a management team, we are playing the long game.
We are fixing the company, Zensar, structurally, and we are positioning it for much better things to come. When I joined, one of the things I told the team that the best is yet to come.
I am very confident even today that the best is still to come.
Sandeep Shah
Okay. Okay.
Just last
Manish Tandon
We have traversed that journey.
Sandeep Shah
Fair enough, sir. Just last two question.
In terms of offshoring, if business has grown on the offshore volume side, why on a Q-on-Q the offshore revenue mix is just improved by 20-30 bps? Second, is it fair to assume fourth quarter there could be a material growth bounceback as we recoup the furloughs and the worst in the TMT may be behind in the fourth quarter where it may not grow and remain stable?
Manish Tandon
Hope is eternal. Hope runs eternal is all I can say.
Ultimately volume growth will translate into revenue growth. In fact, if there is no volume growth and there's revenue growth, then we as a management team get worried.
This is very encouraging. As to, why the proportion, etc., see, there are so many factors, Sandeep: dollar dollar appreciation, some this thing that has an impact.
Then the number of two people going off from onsite will have an impact, equivalent impact on offshore of say five people being added or something like that. Those ratios are are also there.
It's a very from a revenue perspective, it's a fine it's a very fine calculation, especially with an appreciating currency. Being an industry veteran, we can tell you that ultimately offshore leads to higher margin.
Higher offshore volume growth leads to higher margin, and that is what we are focused on. Okay.
Okay.
Sandeep Shah
Sir, just a clarity: fourth quarter, one can expect growth to turn around? Sandeep,
Manish Tandon
we don't give guidance, as you know. Hope runs eternal.
Sandeep Shah
Okay. Thank you.
I will come in the follow-up if I have more. Thanks, and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Debashish Mazumdar from Swan Investments.
Please go ahead.
Debashish Mazumdar
Hope I'm audible. Yes,
Operator
please go ahead.
Debashish Mazumdar
Thanks for the opportunity. I had a few questions.
My first question was around TMT vertical. Sir, I know last time also you had alluded to that the clients have started to spend more on capex on hardware instead of on the services.
This time or as a whole, how are you seeing this? Has it come to a surprise to us in the extent of the impact on our revenue stream on this?
Has it come to you as a surprise or you were sort of prepared for it? Second part to it is, should we assume that it has bottomed out or there is some more recalibration which is left here?
Manish Tandon
No, I wouldn't say that it has bottomed out or recalibration. I wouldn't state a guess on that.
If I have to guess, then I would guess on the downside than on the upside. Okay?
I would say and frankly, as I commented to Nitin and to Amit, I have asked the team to look beyond TMT. Now it's a smaller percentage of our revenue.
I have said that TMT is no longer going to be a crutch that they can fall on as we move forward. I can tell you that overall the headwinds in the TMT sector remain.
I don't think that the spendings that these large companies are doing on capex and so on is going away. A lot of insourcing is also happening in these sectors.
Wherever people are able to retain businesses, they are giving hefty discounts of the order of 30%.
Debashish Mazumdar
Thanks, thanks. Sir, just a follow-up on this one.
Is the headwind we are facing in TMT is a broad all-across clients, or is there a few, let's say, one, two, I'm not even alluding to the top one, is it a few set of clients, client-specific issue or is it a broader theme you're seeing across?
Manish Tandon
See, we don't have too many TMT clients, to be honest with you. At least in our portfolio, we are seeing it as a broader issue.
As I said, it is not that we have 100 TMT clients.
Debashish Mazumdar
Fair enough, fair enough. Got it.
That answers it well. Sir, my second question was, I just wanted to understand the cost item of employee cost, and wanted to relate it with the decline or a flattish offshore revenue.
Could you help me tie these up, because there's been a sharp decline in employee cost during this quarter. How should I understand this?
Is it a fair assumption that a few contracts or a ramp-ups have been delayed or we have reached to a phase where newer ramp-ups are taking time? How should we understand this?
Manish Tandon
As I explained to Sandeep just before this, see, tying up when the currency is stable, then you will see direct correlations. When the currency is depreciating so much, then you will not see direct correlations.
Okay? Everyone in the industry knows that offshore is more lucrative than onsite.
When you look at total revenues, there is a interplay of currency and the utilization and volume there. As to sharp decrease in the cost, all credit goes to Vijay, particularly, and Pulkit, and Vivek also, as to how they have been able to manage the cost.
Some of it, I can tell you, it is because of leave provisioning, because this is a quarter where a lot of people take a lot of leaves and furloughs happen. Some of it, and Pulkit has also mentioned that there is a 0.7% benefit.
Correct, Pulkit, based on leaves that we have got?
Pulkit Bhandari
Yeah. Just to basically add to what Manish said, one is basically higher leave utilization, which is roughly around 1% on an overall basis.
Part of it would have gone into gross margin, part of it would have come to SG&A. The onsite head count reduction is roughly around 52 in the current quarter.
Last quarter as well, onsite head count reduction came down by around 90, which was towards the end of the quarter. The full quarter impact of that benefit is coming in Q3.
Debashish Mazumdar
Got it, got it. That explains.
Sir, specifically, my third question was around the deal wins. Could you give some flavor as to what forms existing new or a net new part on to it?
Second part to it was, are we comfortable with the current run rate of deal wins? How should we understand that?
Or what steps are we taking just to improve this or to give it a larger number? Because we have had higher numbers in the past also.
Manish Tandon
Yeah. As we have been maintaining, we are fairly comfortable as long as the order bookings are somewhere between 0.9 to 1.2 times quarterly revenues.
We are very comfortable with that. This time, it was 1.12, our book-to-bill.
That answers, I think, first part of the question. Second part of the question is before order booking, you have pipelines.
We don't disclose our pipelines, but I can tell you that the pipeline is fairly strong that we see. How much we'll be able to convert and in what timeframe, that we have to accelerate as we continue to focus on doing that.
Debashish Mazumdar
Sir, part two question was the renewals and the new part of the deal. Yeah.
Manish Tandon
If you look at, Pulkit, do we disclose EN and NN or we
Pulkit Bhandari
No, we don't.
Manish Tandon
Yeah.
Debashish Mazumdar
No, certain flavor to it. Just I understand that you don't give the exact numbers, but just a flavor to it as in a year back how it was, or has the proportion changed, or how are we seeing that?
Some color.
Manish Tandon
I would say it usually is about 25% to 27% to somewhere between 20% to 30% is what EN and NN normally is. Sometimes, if you have a large deal or something, it's slightly higher.
Usually it is in this range.
Debashish Mazumdar
No major shift in terms of a year back's and today's order book? It has predominantly been in the similar range, you're saying.
Manish Tandon
No, no. EN and NN order book has been in the similar range.
Our average order book is last four quarters, the average order book was somewhere around 185 or something, if I'm not mistaken. This quarter also it is in the same range.
I'm looking at the order book numbers: last quarter it was 158.7, before that it was 172, and this quarter it is 180.2.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Nikhil Choudhary from Nuvama Institutional Equities.
Please go ahead.
Nikhil Choudhary
Hi. Good morning, everyone.
Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on offshoring.
We have recently improved offshore more than 400 basis points in the last one year. Where we are in this journey, and do you intend to increase offshoring further, and is there any target?
Manish Tandon
No, there is so...
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the line of Manish sir. Please stay connected while I rejoin Manish sir.
Thank you. Thank you for your patience, ladies and gentlemen.
Nikhil, if you could please repeat your question?
Nikhil Choudhary
Sure. Thank you.
Just wanted to understand what's your view on offshoring. We have already increased it by 400 basis points from last year.
Any target you have of, let's say, reaching 60% of overall revenue, any timeline? Thank you.
Hello.
Manish Tandon
Hi. Pulkit, you want to go or you want me to take it?
Pulkit Bhandari
No, no, Vijay, you can take that, yeah.
Vijayasimha Alilughatta
Look, we don't have a specific target in terms of increasing the offshore ratio. This is based on the type of work that we are getting.
With the advent of AI, we are able to do a lot of these stuff at offshore, and that has been the reason why it is actually progressing. To your specific question, we don't have a target saying this is the offshore percent.
I think we are in a range-bound stuff, and this is the right range when it comes to offshoring.
Nikhil Choudhary
Got it. Thank you.
Second one on growth. With us yielding 1.3% growth, which is lower than the industry growth, compared to our guidance of moving up in growth quadrant from bottom quadrant to top quadrant in next 3 years, do you think is it possible for us to, let's say, deliver even mid-single digit to high single-digit growth next year, especially in the backdrop of our nine-month deal win has declined by, I think, a digit and most of the vertical outside of BFSI is actually facing headwind?
What's the timeline or journey or plan to reach the double-digit growth, and can we at least deliver, let's say, mid to high single-digit growth in FY27? Some color there.
Thank you.
Manish Tandon
Growth, you want revenue growth or you want profit growth?
Nikhil Choudhary
Revenue growth, sir.
Manish Tandon
Profit, if it doesn't grow, that's fine, right?
Nikhil Choudhary
No, sir. Profit growth is obviously very surprising and encouraging.
Just wanted to
Manish Tandon
Our profit growth in dollar terms is 18.1% year-over-year. I challenge you to find any large-scale players who have delivered 18.1% profit growth year-over-year.
Nikhil Choudhary
Without a doubt, sir, but any color in terms of revenue growth perspective just from our own modeling, how should we look at this?
Manish Tandon
Revenue growth, kitna chahiye aapko, bataiye? Kitna chahiye?
Maybe I can also buy revenues, na? Guys, look at the overall picture.
Ultimately, our job is to deliver shareholder value. Shareholder value comes from, as I'm old school, I know, but shareholder value comes from profit growth, EPS growth.
Our EPS growth is 24.1% year-over-year. Our profit growth is 18.1% year-over-year in dollar terms.
Nikhil Choudhary
Got it, Manish. Let me rephrase it this way, can we still deliver double-digit profit growth going ahead?
Is that would be the target of the management?
Manish Tandon
Yes. Yes, we want to deliver double-digit profit growth.
We are committed to doing that.
Nikhil Choudhary
Great. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equirus Securities.
Please go ahead.
Sandeep Shah
Thanks for the follow-up opportunity. Manish sir, you said in the healthcare life sciences, couple of accounts where we were on the wrong side of vendor consolidation.
What exactly that has happened, and you believe the impact of this may start from 4Q and may be a headwind for the growth in 4Q, 1Q, or you believe the headwind is already in the numbers in 3Q?
Manish Tandon
No, no. See, there will be some impact in Q4.
This is not like it was $100 million account or anything. We were doing some projects that got consolidated out.
It is not that in an account we got consolidated out. In healthcare life sciences, overall size of the vertical is only $60 million, $70 million, $70 million or so, then even a $2 million, $3 million things consolidation has an impact, correct?
That is the only thing. Overall at a company level, nothing to worry about.
Sandeep Shah
Okay. Okay.
Fair enough. Sir, based on the commentary, it looks like 70% of the portfolio, both on BFSI and MCS, has been doing well, and you are confident.
Will it be enough for you to drive the growth, or you believe you may have to add organically and inorganically new portfolios, which will help us for a long-term growth aspirations?
Manish Tandon
We are actively looking for inorganic opportunities, frankly. Cash that we hold is belongs to the shareholders.
We want to use it very judiciously, not just to go and arbitrarily buy revenues. We are not interested in buying revenues.
We are interested in doing strategic acquisitions that can lead to long-term shareholder value. We are cautious, but we are aggressively looking at opportunities.
Sandeep Shah
Okay. Thanks.
Fair enough. All the best.
Manish Tandon
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, with that we conclude the question-and-answer session.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Tandon for his closing comments.
Manish Tandon
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
It's pretty late. Interestingly, I got dropped out because my cell phone went into do-not-disturb mode.
Before we conclude, those of you who are in the US and in India, I want to reiterate my gratitude for being on this call. Most of all, I want to convey my gratitude to our clients for their continued trust, to all Zensarians for their unwavering dedication, and to of course all of you for your confidence and support as we embark on this shared shareholder value creation journey.
I think Q3 reflected the expected seasonal softness, combined with the impact of change in volume shore mix. Yet, our year-over-year revenue growth, profit growth, significant margin expansion, healthy order book, and robust cash position all reinforce our confidence in the path ahead.
As we move into the final stretch of FY26, our priorities remain clear: maintain disciplined execution, deepen the value we deliver to clients, and continue advancing our AI-native transformation process. Thank you once again for taking the time to join Zensar's Q3 FY26 earnings call.
I look forward to interacting with some of you in the various analyst forums. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of HDFC Securities Limited, that concludes this conference call.
Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
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