All you need to know about Tata’s acquisition of Pegatron’s iPhone plant in India
According to sources, Pegatron, a Taiwanese manufacturer, is in advanced talks to hand over control of its only iPhone production facility in India to the Tata Group. This move is seen as part of Pegatron’s strategy to reduce its partnership with Apple. The proposed deal, reportedly approved by Apple, would see Tata Group holding at least a 65% stake in a joint venture that would manage operations at the Pegatron plant near Chennai. Pegatron would still offer technical support and retain the rest of the stake.
Pegatron has 10,000 employees
The joint venture would be operated by Tata Electronics, a unit of the large Indian conglomerate Tata Group. Pegatron’s production facility in India currently employs approximately 10,000 employees and produces approximately 5 million iPhones annually. That factory represents Pegatron’s last remaining iPhone production site after it sold a similar facility in China to Luxshare for $290 million last year.
Financial details of the ongoing negotiations have not been made public, and neither Tata, Pegatron nor Apple have commented on the matter. This development is in line with Apple’s broader strategy to diversify its supply chain beyond China amid geopolitical tensions between the US and China. For Tata, buying the Pegatron plant would significantly improve its iPhone manufacturing capacity in India.
Tata already has an iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka, bought from Wistron last year, and is building another plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. A potential partnership with Pegatron could further strengthen Tata’s presence in India’s iPhone manufacturing landscape.
The talks are also said to include the takeover of a second iPhone factory that Pegatron has built at its Chennai campus. Negotiations are expected to be completed within six months, when all Pegatron India employees will transfer to the new joint venture.
Analysts expect Tata’s involvement to support Apple’s ambitions in the Indian market, which is forecast to account for 20-25% of total iPhone shipments this year, up from 12-14% last year. The reasons behind Pegatron’s gradual withdrawal from its Apple business, including its India operations, remain undisclosed. Last year, Pegatron cited the need to raise capital for “business optimization” as the reason for the sale of its Chinese factory.
