Tata Group is set to seal a deal to become India’s first homegrown iPhone maker after Wistron Corp (緯創) yesterday agreed to sell a plant in the southern part of the country to the conglomerate.
Wistron’s board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd to Tata for US$125 million, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer said in a statement.
The unit operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru, a person familiar with the matter said.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Tata, an airline-to-software conglomerate, has been in talks for more than a year to take over the plant as it seeks to forge closer ties with Apple Inc.
The deal advances India’s efforts to create local contenders to challenge China’s dominance in electronics, which has been jeopardized by political tensions with the US.
Apple’s iPhones are mainly assembled by Taiwanese firms such as Pegatron Corp (和碩) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) outside Taiwan.
Wistron is one of three Taiwanese iPhone manufacturers in India, along with Foxconn and Pegatron.
It has sought to diversify its business beyond thin-margin iPhone manufacturing into areas such as servers, agreeing to sell its iPhone production business in China to a competitor in 2020.
After the deal has been confirmed by both parties, the companies would seek regulatory approval, Wistron said.
Tata has taken other steps to increase its business with Apple. It has accelerated hiring in its factory in Hosur, near Bengaluru, where it produces iPhone components.
That plant stands on several hundred hectares of land where Tata could add iPhone manufacturing lines in the next few years.
Tata has also announced that it plans to launch 100 Apple stores in the country of 1.4 billion people.
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