BIRLASOFT LIMITED — Q3 FY26

Birlasoft Ltd Q3 FY2025-26 Earnings Conference Call https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VuN7ZpfF2o Published: 3 months ago

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the Berlasoft Limited Q3 FI26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, 0:10 10 seconds all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. 0:20 20 seconds Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on 0:26 26 seconds your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. 0:34 34 seconds Abhinand Singh, head of industry relations, Bidlasoft Limited. Thank you and over to you Mr. Singh. 0:43 43 seconds Thank you and welcome folks. By now we have received or seen our results that were announced earlier today. Those are also available on our website www.blasoft.com. 0:54 54 seconds Joining me on this call this evening are our CEO and MD Mr. Angan Goa and our CFO Mr. Chandra Shakhar Tag Rajan or 1:02 1 minute, 2 seconds Chandrew as we call him. We will begin the call today as usual with opening remarks from both Angan and Chandrew. 1:09 1 minute, 9 seconds Before I hand over the floor to Angunan, a quick reminder that anything that we say on this call on the company's outlook for the future could be a 1:16 1 minute, 16 seconds forward statement involving significant uncertainty and therefore that must be heard or read in conjunction with a disclaimer that appears in our investor 1:25 1 minute, 25 seconds update which you'd have received and is also uploaded on on our website as well as filed with the stock exchanges. With this, let me hand over the floor now to Mr. Angua, our CEO and MD. Over to you. 1:38 1 minute, 38 seconds Uh thank you Abby. So good evening and good morning to all of you wherever you are and wish uh all of you a very happy 1:45 1 minute, 45 seconds new year. Thank you for uh joining us today as we share some perspectives on our Q3 FI26 performance. 1:55 1 minute, 55 seconds Our performance during the third quarter, which as all of you know is a seasonally weak quarter, demonstrates 2:02 2 minutes, 2 seconds our ability to hold our revenue steady, secure solid order book, drive operating 2:10 2 minutes, 10 seconds efficiencies, and generate strong cash flows. Our revenue for the quarter grew 0.3% in 2:18 2 minutes, 18 seconds constant currency and 0.1% in dollar terms to 158 150.8 million. 2:30 2 minutes, 30 seconds We have delivered a stable performance despite it being a seasonally soft quarter which is usually a quarter with lot of furls. 2:41 2 minutes, 41 seconds Growth in our manufacturing vertical which reflects some ramp ups in projects that were won earlier enabled us to 2:49 2 minutes, 49 seconds offset the impact of furlows and weaker traction in other verticals including BFSI. 2:56 2 minutes, 56 seconds On the margin front we have done much better recording a quarteronquarter 3:02 3 minutes, 2 seconds expansion of 212 basis points in our margins which now stands at 18.2%. 2%. 3:11 3 minutes, 11 seconds You will recall that this comes on the back of a similar expansion even in Q2. 3:19 3 minutes, 19 seconds The margin expansion has been driven by several contributing factors including improvement in the quality of our 3:26 3 minutes, 26 seconds revenues, ongoing efforts to optimize our cost structures and some. 3:33 3 minutes, 33 seconds We have sealed our cash collections and as a result our cash balances have risen 3:39 3 minutes, 39 seconds as well. Chandru our CFO will provide more color on all of this in his remarks. On the deal front too, the 3:49 3 minutes, 49 seconds story has been much better in Q3. You would recall that on the last call we had called out that a couple of deals 3:57 3 minutes, 57 seconds that were committed to us but we couldn't sign it in Q2 was had moved to Q3 4:05 4 minutes, 5 seconds that has now shown up in our third quarter results. As a result, our TCV 4:13 4 minutes, 13 seconds for the third quarter stands at $22 million, which is up 89% quarteron 4:20 4 minutes, 20 seconds quarter, which is nearly half out of the uh out of the 202 million, nearly half of it is new engagements. 4:31 4 minutes, 31 seconds Many of these deals were won on the back of our domain expertise and AI capabilities. For instance, in BFSI, we 4:40 4 minutes, 40 seconds want a strategic engagement with a leading payments and card client to build conversational AI and 4:48 4 minutes, 48 seconds agentic capabilities for its EGRC platform. Similarly, we have secured a multi-year engagement to design, build, 4:56 4 minutes, 56 seconds and deploy AI agents across a customer's business ecosystem in the manufacturing 5:03 5 minutes, 3 seconds vertical, encompassing end-to-end business analysis and the development of scalable packaged AI solutions. 5:14 5 minutes, 14 seconds In the manufacturing vertical again we've deployed an AI enabled spark manufacturing material tracking solution 5:23 5 minutes, 23 seconds driving realtime inventory control for a large global company. 5:28 5 minutes, 28 seconds These will add to our growing base of engagements where we are already deploying advanced AI capabilities and 5:36 5 minutes, 36 seconds we will continue to make investments that are necessary to build a differentiated value proposition in the marketplace. 5:45 5 minutes, 45 seconds Now in terms of uh the outlook going forward as all of you know from our perspective 5:53 5 minutes, 53 seconds we have not seen any material change in the demand environment and we've discussed this even in the past. 6:00 6 minutes Customers continue to focus on optimizing their spends and discretionary spending therefore remains 6:08 6 minutes, 8 seconds constrained. While some verticals such as BFSI and ENU are steadier than others, our exposure is higher to 6:17 6 minutes, 17 seconds manufacturing customers across both manufacturing and life sciences and services vertical. In this backdrop, our 6:26 6 minutes, 26 seconds focus is on showing up our deal pipeline driving order book while we are building on our capabilities on domain and technology. 6:37 6 minutes, 37 seconds At this point I would like to request Chandru our CFO to share his perspectives for the quarter. Chandra over to you. 6:45 6 minutes, 45 seconds Thank you Angan and a very warm welcome to all of you joining us today on this call. Allow me to take you through the financial highlights for part 43 FI26. 6:56 6 minutes, 56 seconds As you would have all seen, we've recorded consolidated revenue of dollar 150.8 million for the third quarter, 7:05 7 minutes, 5 seconds representing a dollarterm growth of.1% and a constant currency growth of.3% 7:12 7 minutes, 12 seconds quarteron quarter. In rupee terms, the quarter 3 revenue was rupees 13,475 7:20 7 minutes, 20 seconds million or 1,347.5 crores. A growth of 1.4% quarteron 7:27 7 minutes, 27 seconds quarter. Sequential growth in our manufacturing vertical enabled us to offset impact of fur and softness in 7:35 7 minutes, 35 seconds some of the other verticles resulting in a stable revenue performance during the quarter. Moving on to our EIDA 7:43 7 minutes, 43 seconds performance. This is the second consecutive quarter of healthy margin expansion. Even after excluding the 7:50 7 minutes, 50 seconds benefits of exchange rate tailwinds and some one-off, we've been putting in a serious effort over the past few months 7:59 7 minutes, 59 seconds around our cost structure and continue to do so. This is clearly delivering results for us. EIT for the quarter 8:06 8 minutes, 6 seconds under review increased by 14.8% 8% quarteron quarter and by 49.8% 8:13 8 minutes, 13 seconds on year-on-year basis in rupee terms to rupees 244.8 8:19 8 minutes, 19 seconds crores and up 13.3% quarteron quarter 42.1% year-onear in dollar terms to 8:28 8 minutes, 28 seconds dollar 27.4 million. Uh consequently, AITA margin expanded 212 basis points 8:36 8 minutes, 36 seconds quarteron quarter from 16% in Q2 to 18.2% in Q3. The significant margin expansion 8:45 8 minutes, 45 seconds was led by a combination of factors. We have seen the quality of our revenues improve which is the outcome of a 8:52 8 minutes, 52 seconds conscious effort to focus on a more profitable engagement and delivery model. We have also benefited from 9:01 9 minutes, 1 second favorable shift in our revenue mix with a rise in fixed price business and offshore work. In addition, 9:09 9 minutes, 9 seconds better operational efficiencies and gains from exchange rate tailwinds about 70 to 80 basis points as well as 9:18 9 minutes, 18 seconds some from oneoff about 110 basis points in Q3 helped us in our EIT story 9:26 9 minutes, 26 seconds on a steady state basis and taking into account some accelerated investments we will be making going forward. EITA 9:34 9 minutes, 34 seconds margin will be about 15%. Our EIT performance for a quarter under review reflects the impact of a one-time 9:42 9 minutes, 42 seconds provision that we've taken to conform to the changes in the labor code with regard to graduity and leave cash. That 9:50 9 minutes, 50 seconds provision which we have called out as an exceptional item amounts to dollar 4.6 9:56 9 minutes, 56 seconds million or rupees 40.7 cr. As we had mentioned on our earlier call during the 10:03 10 minutes, 3 seconds current financial year our effective tax rate has increased on account of a provision made for higher tax related to 10:10 10 minutes, 10 seconds US federal taxes. You will recall that we had said that this transitionary trend will sustain through the course of 10:18 10 minutes, 18 seconds the current financial year before settling closer to historical ETR levels in the next financial year. The ETR for 10:26 10 minutes, 26 seconds Q3 FY26 reflects the same. Without the additional federal tax impact that we have seen Q1 onward, our year-to- date ETR would have been about 28%. 10:39 10 minutes, 39 seconds Adjusted for an incremental provision for tax and the one-time provision made on account of changes to the labor court. Normalized tax for the quarter 10:48 10 minutes, 48 seconds was dollar 20.2 million up 20.4% 4% quarteron quarter and rupees 180.2 10:56 10 minutes, 56 seconds crores in rupee terms up 22.1% quarteron quarter. This translates into 11:03 11 minutes, 3 seconds an adjusted basic non-anualized EPS of rupees 6.44 per share. We also 11:10 11 minutes, 10 seconds maintained our robust track record on collection and cash flow generation during the quarter with the highest quarterly collection so far this 11:19 11 minutes, 19 seconds financial year. As a result, our DSO has improved quarteron quarter and now stands at 54 days, which you will agree is amongst the best in our industry. 11:29 11 minutes, 29 seconds Cash and cash equivalence at the end of Q3 increased to rupees 2,491 11:37 11 minutes, 37 seconds crores, up 6% quarteron quarter and 21% yearonear. We will continue with our efforts to enhance our operating 11:45 11 minutes, 45 seconds efficiencies and improve our quality of revenue while also making the investment and capabilities that are necessary for 11:52 11 minutes, 52 seconds future growth. Thank you very much. With this, let me open the floor for questions. 12:01 12 minutes, 1 second Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press 12:09 12 minutes, 9 seconds star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question cube, you may 12:16 12 minutes, 16 seconds press star and two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking a question. We would also request 12:24 12 minutes, 24 seconds participants to limit themselves to one question in the first round and come back for followup in order to allow others to also ask their questions. 12:35 12 minutes, 35 seconds Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question assembles. 12:48 12 minutes, 48 seconds The first question is from the line of SEP Sha from Aquarius Securities. Please go ahead. 12:54 12 minutes, 54 seconds Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulation on a great execution in a difficult time and a quarter. Uh sir 13:02 13 minutes, 2 seconds first question is uh if I look at the offshore revenue mix uh it has jumped materially in this quarter. So is it 13:10 13 minutes, 10 seconds fair to assume volume growth is materially higher versus the headline growth in constant currency terms and uh 13:18 13 minutes, 18 seconds this shift to offshore is a deliberate attempt where we want to diversify beyond staff augmentation business to managed services kind of a business. 13:31 13 minutes, 31 seconds Yeah. So, Sep uh uh thank you for your question. So, your uh analysis is exactly right. Uh as you would have seen 13:38 13 minutes, 38 seconds even in the last quarter and this quarter, our endeavor has been to move away from Starog and do more outcome 13:46 13 minutes, 46 seconds based work. Our clients are also challenging us to do more outcome based work. And uh some of the deals that we have won last quarter as well as this quarter are really uh fixedpriced work. 13:59 13 minutes, 59 seconds As a result you know moving to offshore uh is easier for us and uh that is reflected uh in in the results that we 14:08 14 minutes, 8 seconds have delivered. uh from a volume perspective mathematically yes you're correct the volume growth is higher but 14:17 14 minutes, 17 seconds since uh the offshore ratios are higher that obviously suppresses growth but improves margins 14:24 14 minutes, 24 seconds okay okay and uh sir just uh second question in terms of vertical makes uh which vertical you believe still carries 14:33 14 minutes, 33 seconds some demand headwinds and which vertical is giving you confidence in terms of a better growth starting from 4Q and next financial year. 14:44 14 minutes, 44 seconds Yeah. So, SadP uh you know though uh manufacturing has shown growth this quarter uh we must not uh take that as a 14:54 14 minutes, 54 seconds winning story. Uh quite frankly in my mind the manufacturing business will continue to show headwinds even in 4Q 15:03 15 minutes, 3 seconds there will be softness. uh you see the growth in manufacturing and also ERP because both businesses are quite 15:10 15 minutes, 10 seconds related because of some deals that we had won earlier and we got to ramp them up now and as a result the revenue 15:17 15 minutes, 17 seconds realization has happened but that's more one time uh sustainably I think manufacturing will continue to face 15:24 15 minutes, 24 seconds headwind at least for one more quarter and I expect the manufacturing business to turn around sometime uh Q1 or Q2 15:32 15 minutes, 32 seconds onwards for the next financial here uh we strongly believe that ENU and financial services will be will continue 15:41 15 minutes, 41 seconds uh the growth momentum uh as you know this was a furlow quarter so optically you're seeing a degrowth in 15:47 15 minutes, 47 seconds financial services uh but I believe financial services will be steady in 4Q and next year definitely we will see 15:55 15 minutes, 55 seconds growth uh similar goes for ENU uh manufacturing will be a lot of headwind similarly like we've always said that 16:04 16 minutes, 4 seconds Our life sciences business is more a med devices business which is also really manufacturing. So that holds true for 16:11 16 minutes, 11 seconds life sciences as well. Life sciences I feel there will be headwind in 4q uh and hopefully uh in the next uh Q1 of next 16:20 16 minutes, 20 seconds financial year we should see it stabilize and then grow Q2 onwards. 16:27 16 minutes, 27 seconds Okay. Okay. I have followup will come in the second round. Thanks. Thank you Sundi. 16:35 16 minutes, 35 seconds Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Deep Ma from MK Global. Please go ahead. 16:42 16 minutes, 42 seconds Yeah. Uh thanks for the opportunity and congrats on strong execution particularly on margin side. I just want to understand if you can provide some 16:50 16 minutes, 50 seconds margin work. Uh last quarter in quarter two we have some oneoff of roughly around 150 bips. This time you indicated around 110 bips. 16:59 16 minutes, 59 seconds Uh so from quarter one onwards whether one should take is almost to 50 to 60 whips kind of oneoff benefit which is in 17:07 17 minutes, 7 seconds there in the quarter three margin trajectory. 17:11 17 minutes, 11 seconds Uh that is question one. So broadly margin work and oneoff related some explanation what is driving this oneoff and how long it's this to sustain. 17:20 17 minutes, 20 seconds Uh second question is about the uh revenue growth side. Whether furlows were similar to last year or we have 17:29 17 minutes, 29 seconds seen higher than usual furlow this quarter. If you can pro provide some uh color around intensity of furls 17:38 17 minutes, 38 seconds and last question is about wage any decision we make on wax. Thanks. 17:47 17 minutes, 47 seconds So Dish I'll ask uh Chandru to take the margin question first and then I will uh attempt to answer your other two questions. Chandu. 17:56 17 minutes, 56 seconds Yeah. So uh Dep in terms of the oneoffs, right? So you'll recall that both in quarter one and quarter two we did call 18:04 18 minutes, 4 seconds out some of the uh some of the overall one-offs and therefore the the uh the uh 18:11 18 minutes, 11 seconds steady state AITA margins, right? So if you look at third quarter and if I if I were to do 18:18 18 minutes, 18 seconds that math from the second quarter onward second quarter we spoke about uh a steady state margin of about 13 and a 18:25 18 minutes, 25 seconds half 14% if you recall right from then to where we are today I would believe that 18:33 18 minutes, 33 seconds net oneoff there is a forex impact of 70 to 80 basis points that we spoke about we spoke about the oneoffs of 110 basis 18:40 18 minutes, 40 seconds points if I were to remove those My steady state EITA margin from the 18.2% 18:47 18 minutes, 47 seconds is down to 16 1.5%. And then what what we believe is that uh the 14% 18:56 18 minutes, 56 seconds has gone up to the 16 odd% there is a 200 basis point improvement from a steady state standpoint and from there 19:04 19 minutes, 4 seconds we do expect that we will continue to invest in our business and our business you know I think requires an investment 19:12 19 minutes, 12 seconds on a st on a on a regular basis and if I were to provide say one half basis points on that uh we believe that 15% uh 19:22 19 minutes, 22 seconds EITA margin should be a sustainable run rate margin as we go forward. Dep I hope this answers your question. 19:32 19 minutes, 32 seconds Uh Dep on the wage hike uh look we've already taken a decision that we will uh uh do a wage hike next financial year. 19:42 19 minutes, 42 seconds uh we are doing promotions uh this year this quarter and uh we will affect a wage hike between Q1 and Q2 depending 19:51 19 minutes, 51 seconds upon what level of employees there are in the organization but that's a decision we have taken and we've already communicated 19:59 19 minutes, 59 seconds dish on the growth question can you repeat the question uh because I I didn't quite catch the growth question 20:06 20 minutes, 6 seconds so quarter three whether we face furlow in line with last year or it Furlows were higher than last year and second question. Yes. 20:19 20 minutes, 19 seconds No furlows were in line. 20:23 20 minutes, 23 seconds Okay. So broadly if I refer to your last quarter earning commentary you said if furlows were uh in line it last year you 20:33 20 minutes, 33 seconds expected some kind of revenue growth to continue in this quarter. Now this.3% is what we deliver whether that was the 20:40 20 minutes, 40 seconds expectation or it is uh higher lower than what you anticipated at the beginning of quarter and how one should look quarter four to clear things. 20:50 20 minutes, 50 seconds Yeah. So the it is abs it is exactly in line with what we had anticipated because as you know uh if you recall 20:59 20 minutes, 59 seconds even last year we had furlows uh which were to the tune of about 0.5 to 1% uh 21:06 21 minutes, 6 seconds and that held even for this uh financial year. Now it is hard for me to predict Q4 from a revenue standpoint but our 21:15 21 minutes, 15 seconds focus will be on generating pipeline and signings. What we are confident of is we will deliver better signings than Q3 and 21:23 21 minutes, 23 seconds Q4. Now how much out of that will be uh playing out on the revenue we'll have to wait and watch. Uh but like I've always 21:32 21 minutes, 32 seconds said our problem or rather the focus of the of the management team has to be on revenue growth. But before that we have 21:40 21 minutes, 40 seconds to get the signings done. So as a management team what I can commit is our order booking for Q4 will be better than uh Q3. 21:51 21 minutes, 51 seconds Thank you. 21:55 21 minutes, 55 seconds Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Abishek Shindar from Enkrit Capital. Please go ahead. 22:04 22 minutes, 4 seconds Hi, thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good execution. 22:09 22 minutes, 9 seconds Uh my question is related to the standalone business. 22:14 22 minutes, 14 seconds If I look at the two quarter number for the stand business the revenue 22:23 22 minutes, 23 seconds sorry to interrupt in between Abishek your voice is breaking. 22:29 22 minutes, 29 seconds Yes I is. No still your voice is breaking. 22:36 22 minutes, 36 seconds Okay one minute. Uh, is this now? 22:43 22 minutes, 43 seconds No, we are still able to hear an echo. 22:45 22 minutes, 45 seconds Uh, I would request you to please rejoin the queue again. Okay, fair enough. I'll do that. Thanks. 22:57 22 minutes, 57 seconds We have the next question from the line of Priyanka from Valum Capital. Please go ahead. 23:04 23 minutes, 4 seconds Yeah, I hope I'm audible. uh uh congratulations to the management team for walking the talk about the growth uh 23:13 23 minutes, 13 seconds in the Q2 Q3 and Q4. Uh I'll first start with my first question on the on the 23:19 23 minutes, 19 seconds verticals data and digital has been the story across the sector across the IT companies with respect to the 23:27 23 minutes, 27 seconds modernization as well as the digital uh revenue. So in this uh segment we have 23:33 23 minutes, 33 seconds seen a decline after a a growth uh after a growth that was reported in H1 uh what 23:40 23 minutes, 40 seconds has been uh the readings through this how should we read this decline is it oneoff or related to fors and the and the related question on the infra which 23:49 23 minutes, 49 seconds is again a 10% of the revenues and I'm I'm sure we uh had given up some pass through revenues uh and given up some 23:57 23 minutes, 57 seconds businesses over here in H1 but again when I see Q3 three we have seen a strong growth and I'm suppose this is 24:04 24 minutes, 4 seconds coming from the ro market so uh how should we look across the growth in data digital which is segment number one and 24:11 24 minutes, 11 seconds the and the last segment which is infra over a steady state yeah so Priyank thank you for that 24:20 24 minutes, 20 seconds question so Priyank look our data and digital business fundamentally is strong I don't think uh there is uh any structural issue in the business the 24:28 24 minutes, 28 seconds reason why you see a little bit of degrowth is because it is in line with uh financial services which is affected 24:36 24 minutes, 36 seconds by furloss. So furlows have dented uh the growth a little bit. Uh we are reasonably certain that that growth will 24:45 24 minutes, 45 seconds be back in Q4 as far as data and digital is concerned. Structurally there's no issue with that business. As far as 24:53 24 minutes, 53 seconds infrastructure is concerned, uh as you can see, uh the major growth of infrastructure is because of the deal 24:59 24 minutes, 59 seconds that we signed in RO which was an infrastructure deal uh which we are now executing and that has contributed uh to 25:09 25 minutes, 9 seconds the growth. If I were to look forward uh I continue to feel that digital and data will be steady. they will show uh growth 25:18 25 minutes, 18 seconds or I mean structurally there is no issue. Infrastructure will be a strong growth area. Uh our ERP business will 25:26 25 minutes, 26 seconds continue to lag though it has shown some growth this quarter uh in line with our manufacturing growth but we will see 25:33 25 minutes, 33 seconds softness in the uh ERP business for another quarter at least before that turns around. 25:42 25 minutes, 42 seconds So and just uh to appreciate the uh the the the the readings between this infrastructure segment can we uh can we 25:51 25 minutes, 51 seconds can you get a details around what kind of work uh we do in the infrastructure as a as a broader vertical. 26:00 26 minutes Yeah. So we uh we do we do all kind of work. We do deskite services though deskite services is not a big focus area 26:08 26 minutes, 8 seconds but we have won some business on the deskite services. We also do uh data center management. We also within data 26:16 26 minutes, 16 seconds center we manage the middleware. We manage storage. So all so all kinds of infrastructure that runs a business we 26:25 26 minutes, 25 seconds manage. We've also fored into the cyber security business where uh we've started to serve our customers on the cyber 26:34 26 minutes, 34 seconds security side. So all in all it is it is a growth oriented business for us. 26:41 26 minutes, 41 seconds Got it. Uh coming to the deal win u uh and and I'm congratulating the team for 26:48 26 minutes, 48 seconds the $65 million two deals. I'm suppose that has been reported now uh from the 26:54 26 minutes, 54 seconds signings that were pending in Q2. uh but if I have to uh carve out that deals which have been you know flown through 27:03 27 minutes, 3 seconds from Q2 to Q3 the net new after excluding that again has not been that great how do you read through this and 27:11 27 minutes, 11 seconds when I have to take a view on a on a YTD deal wins which is which is which is where around $450 million uh and still 27:19 27 minutes, 19 seconds it's far away than our aspirational numbers of 750 $850 million for us to get a confidence around the growth for 27:27 27 minutes, 27 seconds the coming year. How should we think about ending this year in say next 3 months at what uh size and number we are 27:35 27 minutes, 35 seconds looking out to end and and then given all the background around the sales engine that we have that we are deploying now what would be the growth 27:44 27 minutes, 44 seconds outlook on the deal wins and the targets for FI27. 27:49 27 minutes, 49 seconds Yeah. So Priyank uh you've asked three questions and let me try and attempt to answer all three. uh first of all the two deals that uh were supposed to get 27:58 27 minutes, 58 seconds signed and slipped from Q2 to Q3 finally got signed in Q3 right so from that perspective uh you are correct that 28:07 28 minutes, 7 seconds those two two deals uh had to get pushed out but now finally got signed but Priyank you must also remember both the 28:14 28 minutes, 14 seconds deals were net new deals right they were not renewals so that's point number one which is why among out of the total 28:22 28 minutes, 22 seconds signings of $22 million $94 million it's net new which uh is 46% 28:29 28 minutes, 29 seconds almost uh of our signings is net new what we are confident of uh Priyank is 28:36 28 minutes, 36 seconds our 4Q signings will be better than Q3 signings now whether it'll be 210 million 250 million or more I don't know 28:46 28 minutes, 46 seconds but from the looks of it basis on the funnel bases on our conversation with our clients we are pretty confident that 28:54 28 minutes, 54 seconds our Q4 signings will be better than Q3 signings. Now, as far as revenue targets are concerned, it is a little too early 29:01 29 minutes, 1 second for us to think about that. We have to first execute Q4 on all the parameters that Chandru spoke about operational 29:09 29 minutes, 9 seconds rigor uh signings uh revenue management etc. and sometime towards the end of March we will be able to put our head 29:18 29 minutes, 18 seconds together in terms of what would be our uh outlook for Q for FI27 but look we don't give a guidance our 29:25 29 minutes, 25 seconds job will be to execute for the quarter and take one quarter at a time sure I get that and when you say Q4 29:34 29 minutes, 34 seconds would be better than Q3 is it based on net new number that we should focus on because Q2 is generally 29:42 29 minutes, 42 seconds very heavy on the renewals so Maybe a renewals is something that you would want to call out and if I have to remember my notes in last quarter call 29:50 29 minutes, 50 seconds you did mention that the new renewals will come at a lower margins and this is what uh is baking around our guidance of 15% versus what we have been delivering now. 30:01 30 minutes, 1 second That is correct Priyank. So you're absolutely correct. So look, renewals are important because as a company as you know pri we've discussed it in the 30:09 30 minutes, 9 seconds past that we have faced a lot of headwind in terms of leaky bucket. So from that perspective renewals are important. Uh what we can say is that 30:18 30 minutes, 18 seconds all the bad news is behind us. I don't think we will lose any existing uh business. Uh but they will get renewed at a lower margin because we see pricing 30:27 30 minutes, 27 seconds pressures which is why Chandru talked about a steady state margin of about 15%. 30:33 30 minutes, 33 seconds uh in terms of the total signings and the percentage of the new signings within the total signings is something 30:41 30 minutes, 41 seconds that we cannot guide at this point in time. I can only say that our overall signings in Q4 will be better than Q3. 30:48 30 minutes, 48 seconds Yeah. And Priyanka if I may add to what Pangan just said one of the big reasons why we believe that a continuous 30:56 30 minutes, 56 seconds exercise around you know it's a spring cleaning on our cost cost structure to make sure that we eliminate waste we 31:03 31 minutes, 3 seconds improve efficiencies is anticipating that we will have margin pressures and we still need to deliver the you know 31:12 31 minutes, 12 seconds strong margins for ourselves and our stakeholders. So that is clearly an objective for us and one of the reasons 31:19 31 minutes, 19 seconds why we so manly focus on our uh on a cost takeout exercise. 31:27 31 minutes, 27 seconds And if I can add to a similar follow on question despite being 31:35 31 minutes, 35 seconds a great confident on the uh despite being one of the good quarter on the new deal signing and also the confidence that we carry forward 31:43 31 minutes, 43 seconds the number of clients that rationalization uh uh exercise is yet not uh ending or it's not bottoming out 31:51 31 minutes, 51 seconds in terms of the last few clients we have lost a couple of clients over the quarters. So when should we see this bottoming out along with the new 31:58 31 minutes, 58 seconds signings that you are doing? Is it the existing clients being minted further more in their wallet share or uh the 32:07 32 minutes, 7 seconds strategy would be to see as the headcount on the sales has been added. 32:12 32 minutes, 12 seconds This would also get reflected in the coming quarters on the in in terms of the uh client's profile on the number of clients. 32:21 32 minutes, 21 seconds Yeah. So Priyank look I mean we have not lost a single client right. Uh the reason why you see the total clients 32:28 32 minutes, 28 seconds coming down is we are rationalizing businesses that are not profitable for us or businesses that don't show 32:34 32 minutes, 34 seconds potential for growth. Right? So we are trying to concentrate on lesser number of clients so that we can deliver and 32:42 32 minutes, 42 seconds serve those clients meaningfully which is why you will see the client list coming down. Now uh that doesn't mean 32:50 32 minutes, 50 seconds that you know we are cutting a tail any further. I mean we've done a lot of rationalization of clients and I think 32:57 32 minutes, 57 seconds we are at an optimum number. Now three or four clients in a quarter we add or three or four clients we rationalize is 33:04 33 minutes, 4 seconds a call that we take based on you know what kind of margins we can we can do. 33:09 33 minutes, 9 seconds However, if you look at our million plus clients, right, that has expanded from 78 to 85, which also should tell you 33:19 33 minutes, 19 seconds that our focus on growing clients which have the potential is very very sharp. 33:33 33 minutes, 33 seconds Thank you. 33:35 33 minutes, 35 seconds We have the next question from the line of Abhishek Shindar from Inred Capital. Please go ahead. 33:44 33 minutes, 44 seconds Yeah. Hi, thank you for the opportunity and hopefully this time it is better. Yes, I can hear you. 33:51 33 minutes, 51 seconds Okay, perfect. Uh thank you. Uh congratulations on a great quarter. Uh sir, my question is regarding the 33:58 33 minutes, 58 seconds standalone business. Uh you know the growth rate in that business is phenomenal. uh the expansion in margin 34:07 34 minutes, 7 seconds is even more better. Uh so how can you give a color in terms of what is driving 34:14 34 minutes, 14 seconds uh you know this efficiency in the standalone business and a part two question is is it that you know it is 34:22 34 minutes, 22 seconds being driven by uh you know any uh uh Salesforce or any other particular 34:30 34 minutes, 30 seconds business uh you know which was predominantly the old glass of business and the cost rationalization or the 34:38 34 minutes, 38 seconds one-offs that are reporting are those you know layoff um you know the reduction in the employees predominantly 34:44 34 minutes, 44 seconds being driven uh you know in this part of business thank you for taking my question 34:52 34 minutes, 52 seconds yeah so Aishek thank you for the question right I'm happy that you looked at the standalone results as well uh see 35:01 35 minutes, 1 second the standalone results uh is where a lot of the RO revenues are captured okay so which is what you're seeing in the 35:10 35 minutes, 10 seconds consolidated financial this RO revenues having gone up on a quarter and quarter basis right specifically we had a couple of customers where we achieved 35:19 35 minutes, 19 seconds milestones and as a result we were able to book additional revenue in the quarter okay and and and these are customers in the ERP space and therefore 35:28 35 minutes, 28 seconds you will find that the third quarter ERP revenues went up on a quarter basis so so uh very precisely that's the reason 35:37 35 minutes, 37 seconds also So the impact of forex benefit right pretty much sits in the standalone financials and that's the other reason 35:45 35 minutes, 45 seconds why you're seeing the bottom line uptick on a big time in the in the standalone uh financial uh vision. 35:55 35 minutes, 55 seconds Uh perfect sir this is helpful. Uh so just uh the second part of the question uh can we relate the reduction in the 36:02 36 minutes, 2 seconds employees to the standalone business and uh is this you know any service line which is driving this uh business you 36:09 36 minutes, 9 seconds mentioned the geography but any color on the service line would be helpful. 36:14 36 minutes, 14 seconds Yeah, service line I spoke about ERP uh bishek I said this geography uh specifically the ERP service line is 36:23 36 minutes, 23 seconds where we saw a growth right uh in the in the third quarter. I also want to hasten to add that uh you know there were 36:31 36 minutes, 31 seconds specific milestones that we hit that allowed us to book some revenues in R. 36:36 36 minutes, 36 seconds uh we still need to steady our ERP business as Angan earlier mentioned the manufacturing and ERP businesses and uh 36:44 36 minutes, 44 seconds that you know that is a work in progress as we speak that's uh that's the uh short answer to your question on the 36:52 36 minutes, 52 seconds service line uh part of it in terms of the headcount reduction the headcount reduction as you 36:58 36 minutes, 58 seconds rightly said is uh you know to a big part in the offshore side of our business having said 37:06 37 minutes, 6 seconds Not all offshore headcount actually gets accounted for in the standalone right because you know a lot of them work for 37:15 37 minutes, 15 seconds uh for our uh global businesses and therefore the accounting will be in the respective uh in the respective uh 37:24 37 minutes, 24 seconds P&Ls of the of the countries from which the business approves. That's point number one. Point number two, we we do 37:33 37 minutes, 33 seconds uh you know as you know we've seen business shifting from onsite to offshore and so there is some rebalancing within this uh within this 37:42 37 minutes, 42 seconds headcom portfolio as well that happened during the quarter. 37:47 37 minutes, 47 seconds Perfect. Thank you for taking my question and your 37:58 37 minutes, 58 seconds Thank you. Participants are requested to limit themselves to one or two questions in the first round and allow others to 38:05 38 minutes, 5 seconds ask their questions and you may come back for polls. 38:12 38 minutes, 12 seconds We have the next question from the line of reor Single from Nama Equities. Please proceed. 38:19 38 minutes, 19 seconds Yeah. Hi. Uh thanks for taking my question. Uh on just one question uh couple of questions actually. Uh one question was on the healthcare segment. 38:29 38 minutes, 29 seconds If you look at the healthcare segment right now it's going undergoing a turmoil even day before yesterday the US government spending on the healthcare 38:37 38 minutes, 37 seconds was increased very marginally year on year whereas it has historically been around 5%. uh there were challenges from the big beautiful bill also which came 38:46 38 minutes, 46 seconds into the for some time back. So how are our conversations with the clients in this vertical looking like at this point of time and what is the outlook that you 38:54 38 minutes, 54 seconds have for this vertical maybe over the next two to three quarters. Uh second question is on the deals part as you mentioned this quarter deals had a 39:03 39 minutes, 3 seconds couple of large deals because of which that number got boosted. If I so if I let's say look at the last three quarters we've done approximately $150 39:11 39 minutes, 11 seconds million of deals every quarter. Now this number used to be in the 250 range some time back. Uh you mentioned next quarter 39:19 39 minutes, 19 seconds we looking at bits in Q4 bits in Q3 which should be north of 200 but the pipeline that we have do you see uh us 39:27 39 minutes, 27 seconds let's say post Q4 do see do you see us maintaining that 200 plus trajectory and possibly reaching 250 also in the coming quarters. uh your outlook on that is really helpful. 39:38 39 minutes, 38 seconds Yeah. So uh before first on the uh on the LSS business right like I've always maintained for us the majority almost 39:47 39 minutes, 47 seconds 80% of our life sciences revenues coming from med devices uh and the balance 20 39:54 39 minutes, 54 seconds from pharma. So from my perspective uh I don't see uh an issue from a market 40:02 40 minutes, 2 seconds standpoint right our issue was more to do with the tariffs that uh the manufacturing companies in med 40:10 40 minutes, 10 seconds device companies faced and as a result you know we uh had little soft quarter 40:18 40 minutes, 18 seconds not only this quarter but even if you remember Q1 one Q 2 Q was okay but 1 Q also we had a soft quarter 40:26 40 minutes, 26 seconds I personally believe that one more quarter we will see some softness but equally I'm very bullish about this 40:34 40 minutes, 34 seconds segment and I think come one Q or worst case 2Q of next financial year this 40:42 40 minutes, 42 seconds business will turn around and start showing growth u now what was your second question before I I forgot the second 40:50 40 minutes, 50 seconds on on the deal wins we've done $1 million of deal win do you think post Q4 we can north of 200 and maybe touch 15 sometime. 40:59 40 minutes, 59 seconds Yeah. So again again so look our entire focus now is on pipeline creation order 41:07 41 minutes, 7 seconds booking and revenue growth right uh as you heard Chandru say that rest of the business our business is very strong 41:16 41 minutes, 16 seconds we're generating great cash flows our DSOs are great our margins now have really come back uh so we are very 41:25 41 minutes, 25 seconds pleased with the way we've executed on the other parts but the one thing that ails the company is revenue growth right 41:33 41 minutes, 33 seconds uh keeping that theme in mind what we are confident is the immediate quarter which is 4Q 4q we are pretty confident 41:41 41 minutes, 41 seconds that we'll deliver better order book than 3Q uh and equally we are working towards increasing our pipeline now as 41:49 41 minutes, 49 seconds you know one Q for us and quite frankly for our industry uh it is a little soft 41:56 41 minutes, 56 seconds quarter when it comes to signings so I believe that one Q we will be able to deliver at the same levels as signings 42:05 42 minutes, 5 seconds as 4Q but our endeavor would be that you know we continue to build pipeline and win 42:11 42 minutes, 11 seconds deals so that's all I can say for now I mean we are doing a lot of investment in sales lot of investment in capability 42:19 42 minutes, 19 seconds building so that we can increase our pipelines and drive revenue so that's our endeavor 42:26 42 minutes, 26 seconds got it got it really uh helpful Ang just one last bookkeeping question for Jimu sir you mentioned that we are looking at 42:35 42 minutes, 35 seconds 15% uh sustainable margins uh so just on that part so you're talking about these margins uh excluding any one-off 42:44 42 minutes, 44 seconds provisions and also the provisions that we have taken in the last quarter and this quarter are we done with those provisions or there still amount of 42:52 42 minutes, 52 seconds provisions which are left which would probably come in Q4 and Q1 I'm sorry if you want to answer this question so before I come that Indonesia fund. 43:01 43 minutes, 1 second Yeah. Uh before just to clarify, we had we had received some one-off benefits in the last quarter and this quarter on 43:09 43 minutes, 9 seconds account of some one-off items before. So I was trying to explain what would be our steady state net of some of those 43:16 43 minutes, 16 seconds one-off items and that's why from the 18.2% 2% a quarter a bit margin where you know I'm saying that the steady 43:24 43 minutes, 24 seconds state margin going forward uh should be looked at at 15% plus right so that's 43:30 43 minutes, 30 seconds one what it also excludes is some forex benefit that we got right because as a 43:39 43 minutes, 39 seconds you know as you can imagine we do not speculate on what forex is going to be so what we look at is uh at constant 43:48 43 minutes, 48 seconds currency And we are trying to we're trying to look at what should be our sustainable 43:56 43 minutes, 56 seconds uh evita margin as we go forward and you know that becomes uh uh you know our own internal benchmark as to how we should 44:04 44 minutes, 4 seconds perform as a company. Right. So that's that's really what I was trying to explain. 44:09 44 minutes, 9 seconds Got it. Got it. And no more provisions in the next quarter or you think there could still be some more provisions reversal of provisions I mean to say in 44:16 44 minutes, 16 seconds the coming quarters. Yeah. So uh so on that again uh I am not aware of any any one-timers in the next quarter unless 44:25 44 minutes, 25 seconds there's something new that comes up uh you know based on any you know accounting uh practice changes or 44:32 44 minutes, 32 seconds accounting requirement changes but right now I'm not aware of any uh new one-time uh before. 44:41 44 minutes, 41 seconds Got it. Got it. And the currently benefit in 3Q was around 70 basis points right? That's correct. 44:48 44 minutes, 48 seconds Got it. Got it. Great sir. Thank you so much for taking the questions and wish you all the best. Thank you. Thank you. 44:56 44 minutes, 56 seconds Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Ravi Manolon from Mquiri. Please proceed. 45:03 45 minutes, 3 seconds Hi. Thank you and congrats on really good margin performance. Uh you know looking at the deals for the Scott looks like you actually signed up with some 45:11 45 minutes, 11 seconds large customers. the payments client for example or even the you mentioned that it's a large USPNC insurer. Uh so 45:20 45 minutes, 20 seconds do you think that you've u moved somewhat closer to your goal of trying to get into some large accounts uh with a huge addressable wallet? 45:30 45 minutes, 30 seconds Yes. So Rabbi uh yeah that is exactly right. I mean uh we are uh uh we are using our domain capability the 45:39 45 minutes, 39 seconds capability that we had invested in all this while now it is bearing some fruit and we are able to win some outcome based deals like I've said that we are 45:47 45 minutes, 47 seconds moving away from uh the star work to more being more outcome based and some of the deal wins that we have mentioned 45:56 45 minutes, 56 seconds uh is an outcome of uh you know of the investments that we have made now they may be larger They may be medium-siz 46:04 46 minutes, 4 seconds accounts. I mean we can't comment on individual clients quite frankly. But we are very pleased with the fact that now we are having conversations with our 46:12 46 minutes, 12 seconds clients which are more domain orientated and most of our wins have an AI component built in. 46:22 46 minutes, 22 seconds Okay. And you know the uh employee numbers does that include subcontractors as well and you know the shift offshore uh you know have you reduced subcontracting? 46:33 46 minutes, 33 seconds Yeah I I think what you're talking about is subcontracting. I I didn't quite hear the question properly but if subcontracting is the question yes our 46:41 46 minutes, 41 seconds endeavor is to continue to reduce subcontractors uh as a business today about 8% 8% right 46:50 46 minutes, 50 seconds 8% of our population is is subcontractors uh but our endeavor will always be to you know reduce that even further but we 46:58 46 minutes, 58 seconds are within the industry norm ra right thanks and I saw that the pass through revenue that's actually now 47:05 47 minutes, 5 seconds practically will n right and that's another factor that I guess that's aided mods but as you do more fixed price should we expect that to go up slightly maybe you 47:14 47 minutes, 14 seconds is there a level that you think would be more natural like 2 3% or 4% something like that no so you know we want to we want to 47:23 47 minutes, 23 seconds deliver more outcome based work for our clients right uh and u uh to deliver that outcome you know we may uh uh you 47:32 47 minutes, 32 seconds we may I mean uh I mean basically we may work with uh technologies or we may work with tech tax etc. But we will have zero 47:43 47 minutes, 43 seconds pass through revenues going forward outside of a one-off infrastructure deal if it necessitates us to do something. 47:51 47 minutes, 51 seconds But we are very clear that we are we are moving away uh from u from um staff work 47:58 47 minutes, 58 seconds or pass through work. It'll be more linear than anything else really. Thanks a lot. First one. 48:09 48 minutes, 9 seconds Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Manik Tala from Access Capital. Please go ahead. 48:17 48 minutes, 17 seconds Thank you for the opportunity. I had a couple of questions. The first question was for both Angan and Chandru. You spoken about 48:26 48 minutes, 26 seconds uh investments and that's where you're essentially guiding for about 15% ETA margins on a sustainable basis. How should we be thinking about these 48:34 48 minutes, 34 seconds investments? Because you've also called out certain pricing or margin concessions that you've given to certain 48:41 48 minutes, 41 seconds top customers. So how much of that is just pricing or margin concession and how much of it is investments around 48:50 48 minutes, 50 seconds sales solution delivery etc. Would be great to get your thoughts on that one. 48:54 48 minutes, 54 seconds That's question number one. The second question is uh specific to the quarter 49:01 49 minutes, 1 second or the quarters of Q4. How should we be thinking about the lower number of working days? If you could just help us 49:09 49 minutes, 9 seconds understand what's the exact number of lower number of working days for Q4 and how does that impact you? Those my questions. 49:18 49 minutes, 18 seconds Yeah. So Monik, let me take both questions. Right. Uh the first thing you talked about is on the uh on the margin 49:28 49 minutes, 28 seconds concession. Uh truth be told uh none of the investment that we are looking at has anything to do with margin 49:36 49 minutes, 36 seconds concession. Right? U as a company we firmly believe that uh providing 49:43 49 minutes, 43 seconds concessional margin is not a way to gain revenue. Right? So that that's our stated objective. Now there will be 49:51 49 minutes, 51 seconds pricing pressure is what uh Angan was explaining from from some of the new businesses and from the renewals and that pricing pressure is coming from 50:00 50 minutes productivity improvements that we've already delivered and we are expected to continue delivering as we go forward. Right? So so that's point number one. 50:08 50 minutes, 8 seconds Point number two, the investments that we're talking about for the most part will be in people and in capabilities. 50:16 50 minutes, 16 seconds Right? So these are specific capabilities that we will continue to acquire as we go forward based on where 50:23 50 minutes, 23 seconds we see our business going and where we see our business is coming from from uh some of our existing and new customers 50:31 50 minutes, 31 seconds and and the investments will be made in in people leadership and in [clears throat] training of our 50:38 50 minutes, 38 seconds recruiters in that direction. uh morning. 50:44 50 minutes, 44 seconds Great. And the second question was with regards to the Q4 in terms of what's the exact number of lower number working 50:51 50 minutes, 51 seconds days and how does that impact our our or is that a headwind? 50:57 50 minutes, 57 seconds Yeah, there there are uh you know I think three working days lower in Q4 versus Q3. Yes, that will have an 51:06 51 minutes, 6 seconds impact. But as we move more towards outcome based deals and that exactly why we are uh you know doubling our focus on 51:15 51 minutes, 15 seconds fixed price outcome based deals where uh the the working days should not necessarily have 51:23 51 minutes, 23 seconds a direct impact. They will have some impact but they will not have that much an impact as we move more and more 51:29 51 minutes, 29 seconds towards outcome based work that we've started to uh major on money. 51:38 51 minutes, 38 seconds Okay. Okay. Thank you. 51:44 51 minutes, 44 seconds Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Manish from Valum Capital. Please go ahead. 51:53 51 minutes, 53 seconds Hi, good evening. I have a two questions. Um, first I'm so it's so hacking to know about the cash pile up 52:00 52 minutes which has happened and also the improvement in the DSO. So I just wanted to know uh this is a drag on the balance 52:08 52 minutes, 8 seconds sheet and the rightful owners are the shareholders of the company. So what we have thought about the possible buyback and what is restricting a possible 52:17 52 minutes, 17 seconds buyback which is so common with the other IT companies in general unless until you have a plan for an acquisition and you are closer to doing an 52:26 52 minutes, 26 seconds acquisition. So I would like to know the thoughts of the management on this. 52:32 52 minutes, 32 seconds So Manish thanks for the question. uh this is uh you know this is a topic that 52:39 52 minutes, 39 seconds uh uh you know is for the uh is for the board of directors to to look at and you know I can assure you that uh you know 52:48 52 minutes, 48 seconds there is this you know this is a this is a topic that the board is fully seized off and uh you know we will we will 52:58 52 minutes, 58 seconds continue to uh you know look at look at opportunistic look at uh you know capabilities invest customer and you 53:07 53 minutes, 7 seconds know anything that that fits into our uh you know our strategy as we go forward 53:14 53 minutes, 14 seconds Manish and and you know the capital allocation which is the point that you're making is is certainly part of 53:22 53 minutes, 22 seconds the entire exercise for us to ensure that uh you know we as we look at how we get the best outcome from from our 53:31 53 minutes, 31 seconds balance sheet we will uh the board will take the right uh decision at the appropriate time. 53:39 53 minutes, 39 seconds I would be glad Shu if you could uh offer a conference call with the all the board of directors and I could enlighten them that how to create a value and 53:49 53 minutes, 49 seconds under the current circumstances I'll be very glad to do that. My second question is related to the appointment of uh Kuml 53:56 53 minutes, 56 seconds and if you could add up something about the roles and responsibilities uh related to his role and would he be a 54:03 54 minutes, 3 seconds part of the conference calls going forward because he would be driving the critical relationships in the most critical market. Thank you. 54:12 54 minutes, 12 seconds Yeah. So uh Manish u as you know the Americas uh contribute almost about uh 85% of our 54:21 54 minutes, 21 seconds business and KML has been hired to drive our America's business. Uh Manish he's just joined the company. He's just four 54:29 54 minutes, 29 seconds months in the company. He's meeting clients, meeting people. Uh he's getting the life leadership hired. Uh so he's 54:37 54 minutes, 37 seconds doing a lot of good things right and we are very pleased and we are privileged to welcome KL to the team as he settles 54:44 54 minutes, 44 seconds down and uh you know starts driving the business at some point in time we will definitely uh ask him to uh speak to all 54:53 54 minutes, 53 seconds of you and give his strategy but please allow some time for him to settle down. 54:58 54 minutes, 58 seconds Also uh Manish you uh must have seen uh and Chandru also commented on all our investments in the RO region is playing 55:07 55 minutes, 7 seconds out. RO region has delivered amazing growth for us this uh quarter. Uh and I 55:14 55 minutes, 14 seconds think uh they will continue to show great growth even next year. Uh and uh the margin profile is also significantly improved because of the revenue uptake. 55:26 55 minutes, 26 seconds So we're very pleased with that. uh with that investment that is paying off now. 55:31 55 minutes, 31 seconds Similarly, KMO is going to make a lot more investments in the US. Uh and over over quarters, you will see that business turnaround as well. 55:42 55 minutes, 42 seconds Wonderful. So nice. Thank you. Thanks a lot. 55:46 55 minutes, 46 seconds Thank you. Uh Manish, thank you. We have the next question from the line of Pulkit Cha from BNK Securities. Please go ahead. 55:58 55 minutes, 58 seconds Yeah. Hi, thanks for taking my question and congrats on a good margin performance. And my first question is for you. Uh in the last quarter you did 56:06 56 minutes, 6 seconds highlight that you know 3K 3Q and 4Q will be sequentially growth quarters. I think today you're slightly shy of saying that you know you you have 56:13 56 minutes, 13 seconds highlighted that you'll see a better team wins in in 4Q but you probably slightly shy of saying whether PQ will be a growth quarter. So if you could 56:21 56 minutes, 21 seconds just confirm if that is still true. Uh and second uh on the 110 with impact uh the exceptional items that you've reported in this quarter if you could 56:29 56 minutes, 29 seconds just throw some color around it uh is it similar to the last quarter and uh uh B will it continue for the next quarter as well? Uh sorry if I've missed out on that part. Thank you. 56:39 56 minutes, 39 seconds Yeah. So uh thank you for the question. 56:42 56 minutes, 42 seconds See look we still maintain uh you know that H2 will be better than H1 as far as 56:49 56 minutes, 49 seconds signings are concerned. right on revenue you have to give us some time uh we showed solid performance in a seasonally 56:58 56 minutes, 58 seconds weak quarter right uh we hope to continue that performance even in 4Q the only reason we I'm not giving a number 57:06 57 minutes, 6 seconds is because we do not guide anything uh but our order booking performance should be an end indication both in 3Q 57:15 57 minutes, 15 seconds and 4Q uh but look I mean I'm uh I'm also acutely aware the fact that you know we've not shown great growth over 57:23 57 minutes, 23 seconds the past many quarters and our entire endeavor going forward like I've said earlier is going to be order book and 57:31 57 minutes, 31 seconds revenue uh growth because all the other parts of the business now uh is uh fixed 57:38 57 minutes, 38 seconds uh so we will be sharply focused on that we will execute and take one quarter at a time and we will see where we go with it on the exceptional item I'll ask 57:48 57 minutes, 48 seconds yeah on the oneoff that we've talked about the 110 this point that I was talking about you 57:55 57 minutes, 55 seconds know comes from a few right backs that we have done based on some provisions that we have made in the past quarter 58:04 58 minutes, 4 seconds which uh which based on our assessment were were no longer required and that's the uh you know that conute the 110 58:13 58 minutes, 13 seconds basis points and we do not expect that this will come again for us in the following quarter and therefore I called 58:20 58 minutes, 20 seconds it a one off. So uh the the uh the uh run rate a bit margin that I spoke about is net of this one time item. 58:32 58 minutes, 32 seconds Sure. Thank you. Thank you. 58:37 58 minutes, 37 seconds Thank you. We have the next question from the line of SEP Sha from Aquarius Securities. Please go ahead. 58:44 58 minutes, 44 seconds Yeah, thanks for the followup. Most of the questions being answered just one thing uh Angan uh despite new business 58:52 58 minutes, 52 seconds TCV being better in this quarter plus you expect it could be order intake could be better even in 4Q and there 59:00 59 minutes could be some recoup of furlows while the fourth quarter growth commentary is a measure. So is there any headwinds uh 59:09 59 minutes, 9 seconds in some of the verticals you foresee and what is the nature of such headwinds? 59:15 59 minutes, 15 seconds So Sep the only reason uh we are we are cautiously optimistic and the reason we are cautiously optimistic is because of 59:23 59 minutes, 23 seconds two things one is the manufacturing growth that you see in 3Q will not be in 4Q because it was a one-off growth that 59:32 59 minutes, 32 seconds we saw from deals that we had won about two quarters ago and uh the ramp up had not happened because there was a stop on 59:40 59 minutes, 40 seconds the program which came to life sometime in October which is why you see the growth in manufacturing and ERP and that 59:48 59 minutes, 48 seconds will not continue in Q4 which is why we feel both these uh segments right manufacturing and ERP will be soft in Q4 59:57 59 minutes, 57 seconds that is point number one point number two even though we will recoup all the furlows like uh Chandrew was mentioning 1:00:06 1 hour, 6 seconds we have three lesser working days though like Chandru mentioned that that doesn't have a complete impact on us because 1:00:13 1 hour, 13 seconds we've moved a lot of our business into fixed price and outcome based but still some part of our businesses are uh will 1:00:22 1 hour, 22 seconds face lesser working days in 4Q so it's a combination of all of this and look again I'm not saying that we will not be 1:00:30 1 hour, 30 seconds focused on growing Q4 far from it I mean that is the management's responsibility I'm just not being able to commit to 1:00:37 1 hour, 37 seconds what would be the growth percentage that we will work on as we go through the quarter uh but I have equally saying I'm 1:00:44 1 hour, 44 seconds confident of the fact that uh you know we will see growth coming back in the 1:00:51 1 hour, 51 seconds future quarters if we do great signings in Q4. In Q4 if I can deliver you know 1:00:59 1 hour, 59 seconds 10 20% extra signings over and above Q3 then we'll be very certain of growth going forward. 1:01:08 1 hour, 1 minute, 8 seconds And any anything to read about health care in terms of a growth uh headwind in the fourth quarter and if yes then it 1:01:16 1 hour, 1 minute, 16 seconds could be volume ramdown or could be a pricing pressure because you are saying renewals are coming at a lower rates. 1:01:25 1 hour, 1 minute, 25 seconds So I don't foresee any ramdowns. Uh Sandep uh what will happen though is we will see immense pricing pressure in the 1:01:33 1 hour, 1 minute, 33 seconds healthcare business uh because of the uncertaintities that my clients face thanks to the tariff situation. Right? 1:01:41 1 hour, 1 minute, 41 seconds So I see that pressure going continuing in 4Q and I see that pressure 1:01:47 1 hour, 1 minute, 47 seconds partly continuing in 1 Q. Uh but overall I don't see any volume degrowth if that was the question. We we don't see that. 1:01:58 1 hour, 1 minute, 58 seconds Okay. Thank you. All the best. Thank you. 1:02:05 1 hour, 2 minutes, 5 seconds Thank you. A reminder to all the participants. You may press star and one to ask a question. 1:02:20 1 hour, 2 minutes, 20 seconds As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Angen Guha, CEO and managing director Bless Limited for 1:02:29 1 hour, 2 minutes, 29 seconds the closing comments. Thank you and over to you sir. 1:02:34 1 hour, 2 minutes, 34 seconds Thank you. So thank you once again for joining us uh on this call today and thank you for all your questions. Uh we 1:02:41 1 hour, 2 minutes, 41 seconds appreciate your interest in Berlesoft. I look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. In the meanwhile, please 1:02:49 1 hour, 2 minutes, 49 seconds feel free to reach out to Abhinand for any clarifications or feedback. Thank you once again. Uh and I look forward to 1:02:56 1 hour, 2 minutes, 56 seconds the conversation next quarter. Again, thank you. 1:03:01 1 hour, 3 minutes, 1 second Thank you very much. On behalf of Verasoft Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining with us today and disconnect your lines. 1:03:11 1 hour, 3 minutes, 11 seconds Thank you very much everyone.