Tata Group is set to become India’s first homegrown iPhone maker, reported Bloomberg News, after one of Apple Inc's key suppliers, Wistron Corp, agreed to sell a plant in South India to the Indian conglomerate.
Wistron’s board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd. to Tata for $125 million (Rs 1,040 cr), Bloomberg said, quoting a statement by the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer.
The unit operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru, a person familiar with the matter said, it added.
Tata has been in talks for more than a year to take over the plant, Bloomberg added.
India's IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekar had, in July, dropped a hint about the talks.
The move comes as both India and Apple Inc are eager to position the South Asian nation as an alternative to China as an electronics manufacturing destination.
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," the news report said.
Bloomberg also reported that Tata has accelerated hiring in its factory in Hosur, near Bengaluru, where it produces iPhone components. That plant stands on several hundred acres of land where Tata could add iPhone manufacturing lines in the coming years, it added.
Tata has also announced that it will launch 100 Apple stores in the country of 1.4 billion.
The 150-year-old Tata Group makes everything from branded salt and Tetley Tea to steel and Jaguar cars, and runs an airline and Starbucks cafés in the country. Its Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is Asia’s largest IT outsourcing company and one of India’s most valuable by market capitalization.
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