NEW DELHI: Tata Electronics is in discussion with Pegatron, Apple’s contract manufacturer, to acquire a majority stake in its India factory, sources aware of the development said.
While the actual investment details of the deal are under discussion, sources said that details will be firmed up after the general election and the deal is likely to be closed by July-August.
An email query sent to Pegatron did not elicit any reply while Tata Electronics declined to comment.
A source aware of the development confirmed Tata Electronics is pursuing the deal but added that it’s “too early to comment on details and nature of the deal”.
Tata Electronics has already acquired the iPhone unit of Taiwanese company Wistron in Bangalore for USD 125 million in November last year.
Sources said that the Pegatron deal is likely to be done at a lower valuation.
The Pegatron factory in India makes iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 for which demand has started tapering now. The Pegatron and Tata’s Wistron factory are expected to gain when Apple scales up its India operations.
The latest iPhone models, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 are made by Foxconn in Chennai. Apple has plans to scale up its India production by over five-fold to USD 40 billion (about Rs 3.2 lakh crore) over the next 4-5 years.