Tata Group In Talks To Buy iPhone Maker Wistron's Karnataka Plant: Report

Tata Group is in talks to buy Taipei's Wistron Corp, one of the top Apple iPhone manufacturers in India.

Tata Group is eyeing the Wistron manufacturing facility in the southern state of Karnataka for Rs 4000-Rs 5000 crore.

Tata Group is in talks to buy Taipei Wistron Corp, one of the top Apple iPhone manufacturers in India, the media has reported. Tata Group is eyeing the Wistron manufacturing facility in the southern state of Karnataka for Rs 4000-Rs 5000 crore, says a report by The Economic Times.

Wistron began making iPhones in India in 2017, after years of efforts by Apple to add manufacturing capabilities in the country. The Taipei-based company currently assembles iPhones at its plant in the state of Karnataka in southern India. Taipei City, Taiwan headquartered Wistron started making iPhones in India in 2017, which was a result of tech giant Apple's years of efforts to add manufacturing capabilities in the country. Wistron currently assembles iPhone models at its plant in the state of Karnataka.

The transaction, if successful, will help the salt-to-software conglomerate ramp up the manufacturing capabilities of group company Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd (TEPL) in precision engineering, the ET report added. TEPL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.

Meanwhile, there is an ongoing disruption at Apple maker Foxconn’s biggest iPhone manufacturing factory in the Zhengzhou district of China. It is set to cost dearly to Apple. The Zhengzhou Foxconn campus, which normally houses more than 200,000 employees is where the vast majority of iPhone Pro models are assembled has been hit by protests in the wake of strict Covid-19 restrictions and it will cause Apple to lose as many as 6 million iPhone Pro models, said a recent report by news agency Bloomberg.

Production losses are set to impact Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models, which have been the highest in demand this year. Foxconn's manufacturing facility in China's Zhengzhou has been rocked by workers protests who have fought back against Covid-19 lockdown fallout, the report added.