Wistron oks sale of ‘iPhone making’ India unit to Tatas

NEW DELHI: In a big leap in manufacturing of electronics in India, the Tata Group has officially taken charge of the Bangalore factory of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron, becoming the first Indian company to manufacture the highly-sophisticated Apple iPhones.
The board of Wistron approved the sale of its India plant to the Tatas, and said the transaction is tentatively estimated at $125 million.
TOI had first reported on the Tata group kick-starting iPhone production and taking charge of the Wistron plant in its edition dated May 16 this year.
“Wistron Corp held a board of directors meeting on Friday and granted approval for its subsidiaries, SMS InfoComm (Singapore) and Wistron Hong Kong to sign the Share Purchase Agreement with Tata Electronics (TEPL) for the sale of its 100% indirect stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) (WMMI),” the Taiwanese company said.
After the confirmation and signing of relevant agreements by both sides, the deal will proceed to obtain necessary approvals. “Following the completion of the transaction, Wistron will make the required announcements and filings in accordance with applicable regulation.”
The plant of Wistron is located near Bengaluru.

The announcement by Wistron was shared by minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “@TataCompanies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from India,” Chandrasekhar said, congratulating the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations.
“Thank you @Wistron for your contributions, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm,” Chandrasekhar said in the post.
The IT ministry, he said, stands fully in support of the growth of global Indian electronics companies that will, in turn, support global electronic brands which want to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner.
Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook had a detailed meeting with Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran in Mumbai during his India visit in April. It is understood that the business tycoons had discussed the mega electronics manufacturing plans of the Tata Group.