The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given approval to Tata Electronics Private Limited for its proposed acquisition of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Limited. The deal involves purchase of 100% equity share capital of Wistron Infocomm by Tata Electronics.
“The proposed combination relates to the acquisition of 100% of the Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing (India) Private Limited’s (Target) equity share capital from SMS Infocomm (Singapore) Private Limited and Wistron Hong Kong Limited by Tata Electronics Private Limited (Acquirer). The Acquirer is a greenfield venture of Tata Sons Private Limited,” CCI said.
Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India, which was incorporated in 2017 by the Wistron group, operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru.
Back in November, Tata Group completed the acquisition of Wistron’s manufacturing facility in Karnataka, marking its foray into assembling Apple iPhones.
Speculations about this deal had been circulating for some time. The discussions surrounding the agreement were initiated shortly after Wistron incurred a $7 Mn loss due to employee agitation at the Bengaluru plant.
With this deal, Tata Group becomes the first Indian company to enter iPhone production. However, this is not the first association of the Tata Group with iPhone production, as it already manufactures the metal body at its Tamil Nadu plant.
The development comes at a time when Apple is looking to ramp up its production in India, aiming for around $40 Bn by 2027, more than five times the current levels. In the last fiscal year, Apple’s manufactured products exceeded $7 Bn, according to government officials.
Industry analysts anticipate that Apple’s manufacturing collaborators, such as Foxconn, Pegatron, and the Tata Group, could commence iPhone 17 production in India in the second half of 2024.
Apple was expected to wrap up 2023 with a 7% market share in India, a market traditionally dominated by Android smartphones, as per a study.
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