Apple: The Tatas acquire Wistron India, to manufacture iPhones by 2025-26
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Tata Group will start making Apple iPhones in India for domestic and global markets within two and a half years, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday.
The Tata Group has acquired the India operations of Apple supplier Wistron Corp, which announced this development in a board meeting today, the media reported.
Taiwan-based Wistron Corp approved proposals for its two subsidiaries, based in Hong Kong and Singapore, to sign a share purchase agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd (TEPL) for the sale of 100 percent of their stakes in Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing (India) Pvt Ltd. The transaction price is tentatively estimated at USD 125 million.
The Union Minister also thanked Wistron for “building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm.”
“@GoI_MeitY stands fully in support of the growth of global Indian electronics companies that will in turn support global electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner and to realize the PM’s goal of making India a global electronics power,” Chandrasekhar posted on X (formerly Twitter).
The latest development highlights India’s growing production capabilities and reflects a significant departure from Apple’s previous strategy of selling largely Chinese-made new devices to customers worldwide.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial incentives to increase domestic manufacturing and Apple’s aim to look beyond China amid an ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing have helped India become increasingly vital to the iPhone maker’s diversification effort.
“PM Modi Ji’s visionary Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted and major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports,” Chandrasekhar said.
The PLI scheme, which aims to boost domestic manufacturing, create jobs, and support exports, was announced in 2021 for 14 sectors, including large-scale electronic manufacturing, white goods, textiles, manufacturing of medical devices, automobiles, specialty steel, food products, high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell battery, drones, and pharmaceuticals with an outlay of Rs 1.97 trillion.
Earlier this year, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that Apple exported USD 5 billion worth of goods from India in 2022, and noted that the company plans to produce 25 percent of global units in India within the next four to five years.
The takeover of the Wistron Corp factory in Karnataka by the Tatas, India’s largest conglomerate, has culminated almost a year of negotiations.
The 155-year-old group, which sells everything from salt to technology services, sought to make inroads into electronics production and e-commerce over the past few years. The company already makes iPhone chassis, or the metal backbone of the device, at its factory in Tamil Nadu.
