India’s largest conglomerate, Tata Group is close to an agreement to acquire an Apple Inc. supplier’s factory as soon as August, according to people familiar with the matter. This will mark the first time that a local company moving into the assembly of iPhones.
The factory in southern of Karnataka, Wistron Corp., potentially valued at around $600 million, is expected to be taken over by the Tata Group after a year of negotiation, revealed people who wished to stay anonymous as the matter is private. The establishment employs more than 10,000 workers who assemble the latest iPhone 14 model.
In order to win the state-backed financial incentive, Wistron is committed to ship at least $1.8 billion worth of iPhones from the factory in the fiscal year March 2024. They have also planned to triple the factory’s workforce by next year. Tata is set to honor this commitments as Wistron exits from iPhone business in India.
Spokespersons of the three companies – Wistron, Tata, Apple – declined to comment.
This move is likely to boost the momentum to Apple’s efforts to diversify its product base beyond China and build up technology manufacturing in South Asian nation. Apple has increased its efforts to diversify away from China, citing the tensions between Washington and Beijing.
India has made progress in domestic manufacturing ever since the Narendra Modi-led government has set up lucrative incentives to expand production and employment.