Tata Group In Talks To Buy Apple Vendor Wistron's Manufacturing Facility In Karnataka: Report

Tata Group is said to be in talks with Apple supplier Wistron to buy its manufacturing plant in Karnataka for Rs 4,000-5,000 crore.

The plant at Karnataka's Narasapura is the sole facility of the Taiwan-based Wistron in India, and employs around 14,000-15,000 people, reports Economic Times.

Wistron, one of the leading vendors for Apple in India, manufactures devices and components for the US tech giant at the plant situated in Karnataka's Kolar district.

Foxconn and Pegatron and Wistron are the top three vendors for Apple in India.

The deal, if successful, could help the Tata Group to ramp up manufacturing capacity of its wholly-owned subsidiary Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) in precision engineering.

TEPL was incorporated in 2020 to scale up mobile phones and component contract manufacturing following a geopolitical backlash against China.

TEPL's exclusive deal with Apple was a part of Make in India and takes benefit from the government's Production-linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

However, if the deal does not work out, Tatas may even pursue finalising a joint venture with Wistron, according to the sources cited in the ET report.

The joint venture deal might be in the line with Tata Motors' JV with Ford in Gujarat earlier in 2022.

"Tatas will run the show, but Wistron may keep a small share to leverage on the global vendor ecosystem of Apple," a person aware of the matter was quoted in the ET report as saying.