Tata to buy iPhone maker Pegatraon’s India plant: report

Pegatron is in advanced talks to form a joint venture with Tata Electronics that will see the Indian conglomerate take control of the Taiwanese firm’s iPhone manufacturing facility in India, Reuters reported. 

The report, quoting two unidentified people, said Tata group will hold an at least 65% stake in a joint venture that will manage the Pegatron plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. 

Pegatron will continue to provide technical support and will hold minority stakes in the JV. 

The deal has reportedly received support from Apple and is likely to be finalized in the next six months. 

The people mentioned above did not share financial details of the negotiations.

Amid the government push for mobile phones manufacturing in the country, Tata group has been leading the efforts to become Apple’s leading iPhone manufacturer in India. Besides acquiring Apple partners’ existing manufacturing facilities, it also plans to set up new plants. 

Tata group entered the iPhone manufacturing and assembly market last year by acquiring Wistron’s plant in Karnataka. 

The Regulator Competition Commission of India approved 100% acquisition of Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing (India) Pvt. Ltd by Tata Electronics Private Limited in January this year.

Again in January, Tata Electronics signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government to invest ₹12,080 crore ($1.45 billion) to build an Apple mobile phone assembly unit in Hosur.

The plant is likely to generate over 40,000 jobs and will have Pegatron as technical partner. 

With the acquisition of Pegatron facility, Tata Electronics will become the main competitor of Foxconn, Apple’s main partner for the production of its devices, in India. 

This comes as Apple has been seeking to expand its partnerships with manufacturers outside China.