India's Tata Group wants to OEM iPhone or set up a joint venture with Wistron Capital

News on September 9, according to Bloomberg reported on Friday, India's local leading Tata Group is negotiating with Taiwanese supplier Wistron Capital, hoping to establish a joint venture to assemble Apple's iPhone in India.

So far, Apple, Tata Group and Wistron have not commented.

Talks with Wistron are aimed at making Tata a force in the tech manufacturing sector, and the Indian giant wants to leverage Wistron Capital's expertise in product development, supply chain and assembly, people familiar with the matter said. If the deal goes through, Tata will be the first company in India to produce an iPhone.

Details such as the structure and shareholding of the deal have not yet been finalized and talks are ongoing, with the plan likely to require Tata to acquire a stake in Wistron Capital's India business, or the two companies to build a new assembly plant. People familiar with the matter believe they may also implement both initiatives at the same time.

People familiar with the matter also said that the goal of the new joint venture is to eventually increase the number of iPhones assembled by up to five times compared to the number Wistron currently assembles in India. The partnership could also give Mumbai-based Tata access to a portion of Wistron's manufacturing business other than smartphones, people familiar with the matter said.

Tata Group is India's largest conglomerate with 96 companies across 7 divisions, operating in more than 40 countries on six continents, and its products are exported to 140 countries in aviation, automotive, FMCG, chemicals, defense aerospace, power distribution systems, engineering, finance, medical, information, railway locomotives, real estate, steel, communications and more.

According to publicly available information, the Tata Group got its name from its founder, Jamshidji. Tata, whose family members have served almost all of the group's chairmanship. The chairman of the group during the transition period is Latan? Tata.

Wistron is one of the assemblers of Apple's iPhone SE and iPhone 6s smartphones. Luxshare later announced the acquisition of part of Wistron's iPhone business for $472 million, becoming Apple's first Chinese mainland foundry.