Taiwanese firm Pegatron is in advanced talks to sell its only iPhone manufacturing facility in India to the Tata Group, Reuters reported on Monday, April 8.
The deal has received the backing of Apple, said the report citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Tata plans to hold at least a 65 per cent stake in a joint venture that will operate the Pegatron plant near Chennai city in Tamil Nadu, with the Taiwanese firm providing technical support and holding the remaining stake, it added.
Tata would be operating the joint venture through its Tata Electronics unit.
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Pegatron’s India factory has around 10,000 employees and manufactures 5 million iPhones annually.
If the deal goes through, this would be Pegatron’s another scale-back of its Apple partnership.
Last year, Pegatron forfeited control of an iPhone plant in China to rival Luxshare in a $290 million deal.
Pegatron had said the China plant deal was done to raise capital to “optimise its business”.
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Tata already operates an iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka, which it took over from Taiwan’s Wistron last year, and is also building another in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, where Pegatron is likely to emerge as its joint venture partner.
Pegatron has been developing another iPhone factory at the same Chennai campus, and the deal talks also include Tata taking over the plant, as per the report.
“The talks between Tata and Pegatron for the factory are expected to close in six months and will see all of the Pegatron India employees move to the joint venture entity,” it added.
The move will likely help Tata bolster its plans to start iPhone manufacturing and help Apple expand its operations in India.
Till now, there has been no official announcement by Psegatron, Tata or Apple about the deal.
Apple’s iPhone contract manufacturers in India include Tata, Pegatron and Foxconn.
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Published: 08 Apr 2024, 06:05 PM IST