Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate, is close to an agreement to acquire an Apple supplier's factory as soon as August, marking the first time a local company would move into the assembly of iPhones. A takeover of the Wistron factory in southern Karnataka state, potentially valued at more than $600 million (roughly Rs. 4,900 crore).
Tata Group is on the verge of finalizing a deal to acquire a prominent Apple Inc. supplier's factory. A report by Bloomberg has claimed that the agreement could be sealed as early as August 2023. This initiative, if successful, would be a historic turning point since it would be the first time a local Indian business entered the iPhone assembly market. The target of Tata's acquisition is the Wistron factory located in the southern state of Karnataka.
If the report by Bloomberg is to be believed, Tata Group will soon close the Rs 4000 crore deal to takeover a Wistron Corporation factory in Karnataka. For those who are unaware, Wistron started to manufacture iPhones in India around 5 years ago with iPhone SE 2. Currently, the tech giant manufactures iPhone SE, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14 in India. The manufacturing facility is well-known for producing the iPhone 14 model. It now has a staff of more than 10,000 people.
Wistron has committed to shipping iPhones worth at least $1.8 billion (roughly Rs. 14,800 crore) from the factory in the fiscal year through March 2024 to win state-backed financial incentives, the people said. It also planned to triple the plant's workforce by next year. Tata is set to honour those commitments as Wistron exits the iPhone business in India.
The launch of an Indian iPhone is anticipated to give Apple's initiatives to expand technology production in South Asia and diversify its product base outside China more impetus. In the three months that ended June 30, Wistron shipped about $500 million (approximately Rs. 4,100 crore) worth of iPhones from India, while Foxconn Technology Group and Pegatron, two of Apple's major Taiwanese suppliers, have also increased local production.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi established government programmes with generous financial incentives to increase output and employment, India has advanced in domestic manufacturing. After China's Covid lockdowns and the escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing, Apple has intensified attempts to diversify away from China. The 155-year-old Tata Group offers products ranging from IT services to salt. The group has been attempting to break into the relatively uncharted waters of e-commerce and electronics manufacturing for the past few years.