Everyone, before we start, as January is not over yet, let us wish you all the best for 2022. We are pleased to welcome you to this meeting concerning Wavestone's revenue for the third quarter of 2021/2022. Today, the speakers are Pascal Imbert, Co-founder and CEO of Wavestone. Good evening, Pascal.
Good evening, Justine. Good evening, everyone.
Laurent Stoupy, CFO of Wavestone. Good evening, Laurent.
Good evening, everybody.
Laurent, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Justine, and good evening, everyone. The revenue for Q3 of the 2021/2022 fiscal year was up 9% compared with Q3 last year. It reached EUR 122.3 million. As you can see, at constant exchange rates and scope, that is excluding Everest Group and why innovation!, revenue increased by 7% compared with the previous fiscal year. As a reminder, Everest Group has been consolidated into Wavestone since May 1, 2021, and why innovation! since November 1. Over the first nine months of the fiscal year, Wavestone revenue amounted to EUR 340.2 million, up 14%. At constant scope and exchange rates, this was growth of 12%. It should be noted that there was a working day impact of +1% over the nine months period.
Moving to our KPIs. Next slide. The utilization rate for Wavestone consultants remain high. In Q3, it stands at 77% compared to 78% in H1. This is still significantly higher than the normative level of 75% initially set for the whole fiscal year. Lastly, the utilization rate stood at 77% over the first nine months, to be compared with 71% for the whole previous fiscal year. The average daily rate remained robust, reaching EUR 849 over the first nine months of the fiscal year, higher than EUR 842 recorded at end of March 2021. You should note that Everest Group and why innovation! added EUR 6 to the average sales price over the period.
That means we are confirming our objective of reaching an annual average daily rate slightly higher than last year. Following the trends of previous quarter, our order intakes remain robust. Visibility on project in the coming months is excellent. As you can see, our order book continues to be solid, with 4.1 months of work at the end of December, compared to 3.93 months before and 4.1 at the end of previous fiscal year. Thank you. That's the end of my overview. Pascal, it's up to you.
Thank you, Laurent. Now let's turn to Wavestone's workforce. Firstly, the staff turnover rate remains high, standing at end of December at 17% over the last 12 months. This is a figure to be compared with 15% at the end of H1. Over the full fiscal year, we expect our staff turnover to be close to the middle of the range, 15%-20%, maybe a little bit above. Regarding recruitment, we confirm our objective of welcoming more than 900 new hires over the full fiscal year. As a reminder, we strengthened this objective at the beginning of December. Our previous objective, our initial objective for the year was to recruit 800 new hires over the fiscal year.
At December 31, Wavestone had 3,624 employees, compared with 3,453 at the end of March 2021. Now, if we look beyond our figures for the third quarter, this evening's call is also an opportunity to announce the finalization of the acquisition of NewVantage Partners, a consulting firm based in Boston. NewVantage Partners is a niche consultancy with a very high added value. It specializes in data strategy, supporting Fortune 200 companies in meeting their data-driven transformation needs. NewVantage Partners achieved a revenue of $2.6 million in 2021.
We have acquired 100% of NewVantage Partners' share capital at a total acquisition price of $2.7 million in enterprise value, to which may be added an earn out of up to $1.2 million, depending on the firm's performance over 2022. NewVantage Partners was acquired in mid-December and will be consolidated in our accounts from January 1, 2022. NewVantage Partners further consolidates Wavestone's position in the U.S. As you know, the U.S. is a key geography for Wavestone's international expansion. It opens doors to new clients for the firm, especially to new very large clients in the U.S. market, on which we want to leverage in order to sell our broader value proposition. It brings first-rate expertise in data, a key topic of impact on strategic plan.
After what Laurent presented earlier, it won't surprise you that we are positive for the end of the fiscal year. We should note however, that the consultant utilization rate is expected to slightly decrease in Q4. This is due to the many new starters that we have been onboarding since September 2021, combined with an increase in sick leaves in recent weeks due to the current COVID-19 situation. I can nevertheless confirm that we expect our utilization rate to stay above 75% over the quarter. That is to say above our normative level. Regarding our annual objectives, we are confirming the targets we strengthened at the beginning of December.
As a reminder, we now target an annual revenue of EUR 462 million, taking into account the consolidation of Everest Group Consulting since May 1, 2021, of why innovation! since November 1, and of NewVantage Partners since January 1, 2022. Regarding profitability, we confirm that we are aiming for an EBIT margin of around 15%. This is a figure we have largely strengthened beginning of December, as our initial profitability target was an EBIT margin of 17%. These objectives are calculated on a constant foreign exchange basis and exclude new acquisitions. Well, that completes the information we wanted to cover about our third quarter, and we will be happy now to answer any questions you might have.
You can now ask your question. To do so, please don't forget to unmute your mic. If there is no question, maybe, Pascal, you can conclude. Oh, I think we have a question.
Hi, Pascal. This is Ben Gardiner with Grandeur Peak. I just had a quick question. When you make acquisitions, like the one you just did in the U.S., do the management teams and just the consultants at the company that you're buying, do they usually stick around, or do you see kind of an initial wave of people who kind of leave because they're getting acquired? I'm just kind of curious for your thoughts on just, do you see much of a disruption, you know, in the year or whatever after you make an acquisition, maybe outside of France in the international markets?
In fact, we are especially cautious when we make acquisitions outside of France. We discuss very precisely of the project. In the case of NewVantage Partners, in fact, we met all the team before making the acquisition. It's a small team, so it was easier. But it's a way to get a feeling of what is going to happen after the acquisition. Regarding the key people of the firm, we tie them usually during 18 to two years, because we know that if the key people are staying, there is a great chance that in fact there will be a very good stability within the firm.
That has been our experience, for instance, for Everest Group we acquired earlier in the year. There is a very good stability of the team, very few, I think one or two, departures over the nine months since we acquired Everest Group. It was also the case in WGroup. I would say that for the time being, outside of France, we've been quite successful in keeping the people because maybe we pay more attention to this topic, which is critical for us when we make acquisition outside of France.
Great. Thank you so much. That's all I got.
You're welcome. It's a pleasure to speak to you once again. Thank you for attending this meeting.
Absolutely. Great. Thank you. It's great to talk to you again as well.
Justine, maybe if there are no other questions.
Yeah.
Thank you for listening, and we wish you a very good evening, and we take presentation of you on April 28. By the way, our comprehensive annual results will be published at the end of May 2022. Have a great day, and see you soon.