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Tata Electronics said on Friday it has bought a 60 per cent stake in Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron’s India unit that operates an iPhone plant, beefing up the Tata group firm’s position as an Apple supplier in a fast-growing market.
The stake acquisition in Pegatron Technology India is for Apple Inc’s iPhone plant near the southern city of Chennai, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Tata Electronics and Pegatron did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Tata Electronics did not reveal the financial terms of the deal.
The company will now have two plants in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and one in neighbouring Karnataka, which it took over from Taiwan’s Wistron last year.
Apple is increasingly looking to diversify its supply chain beyond China amid geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. Last April, Reuters reported that Pegatron had the backing of Apple and was in advanced talks to sell its only iPhone plant in India to Tata as the Taiwanese firm looked to scale back its partnership with Apple.
Tata, one of the largest conglomerates in India, has been expanding into iPhone manufacturing, rivalling Foxconn, the only other iPhone contract manufacturer operating in India.
India’s competition regulator earlier in January approved Tata Electronics’ plan to buy a stake in Pegatron Technology India.
The acquisition of Pegatron’s India unit by Tata Electronics could also boost Apple’s confidence in India’s smartphone manufacturing capabilities and comes at a time when the iPhone maker is reportedly seeking to manufacture the upcoming iPhone 17 from scratch in India.
While Apple already manufactures the iPhone 16 in India, the next project may involve the New Production Introduction (NPI) for the iPhone 17. It is essentially a stage where Apple turns a prototype into a commercially viable device. Apple is said to be training engineers working at the factories of its Indian suppliers to implement NPI for the upcoming iPhone model.
– Written with inputs from Reuters
