Reliance Hops On To Manufacturing Bandwagon In India, Sets Up A Joint Venture With Leading U.S Firm Sanmina At 100-Acre Chennai Campus

Leading manufacturing solutions company Sanmina Corporation and India's Oil -to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries (RIL) on Thursday (March 3) announced the creation of an electronic manufacturing joint venture in India.

Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited (RSBVL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, will hold 50.1 percent equity stake in the joint venture entity while Sanmina will have a 49.9 percent shareholding.

RSBVL will achieve this ownership primarily through an investment of up to Rs 1,670 crore in new shares in Sanmina's existing Indian entity ((Sanmina SCI India Private Ltd), a statement by RIL said

As a result of the investment, the joint venture will be capitalised with over $200 million of cash to fund growth, the companies said.

The joint venture will focus on high technology infrastructure hardware across industries such as communications networking (5G, cloud infrastructure, hyperscale datacenters), medical and healthcare systems, industrial and cleantech, and defense and aerospace.

In addition to supporting Sanmina’s current customer base, the joint venture will also create a “state-of-the-art ‘Manufacturing Technology Center of Excellence’ that will serve as an incubation center to support the product development and hardware start-up ecosystem in India, as well as promote research and innovation of leading-edge technologies,” the companies said in an official release.

All the manufacturing under the proposed joint venture will initially take place at Sanmina’s 100-acre campus in Chennai, with the ability for site expansion to support future growth opportunities as well as to potentially expand to new manufacturing sites in India over time based on business needs.

Located at SIPCOT Hi-Tech SEZ at Oragadam, Sanmina Chennai facility currently provides manufacturing and design solutions for telecommunications, medical, storage & computing, avionics, industrial and multimedia companies.

Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said, “We are delighted to work with Sanmina to access the significant market opportunity for high-tech manufacturing in India. For both growth and security, it is essential for India to be more self-reliant in electronics manufacturing in Telecom, IT, Data Centers, Cloud, 5G, New Energy and other industries as we chart our path in the new digital economy. Through this partnership we plan to boost innovation and talent in India, meeting both Indian and global demand.”