Smartphone Maker Lava Eyes India Venture With Chinese Partner
Indian smartphone maker Lava International Ltd. is in advanced talks with China's Huaqin Technology Co. to create an electronics manufacturing venture in the South Asian nation.
The venture would aim to win contracts from US and Chinese customers for research and development, design, and manufacturing of electronics products, according to a letter from Lava to India's technology ministry seen by Bloomberg News. Talks for the partnership are close to being completed, according to the letter.
The pact would give the closely held companies heft as they seek to take on rivals such as Foxconn Technology Group. The Taiwanese giant, which assembles phones for Apple Inc., is among electronics companies that have built out production capacity in India to diversify beyond China and take advantage of incentives that are part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aspirations to make India a manufacturing hub.
Shanghai-based Huaqin, with more than 33,000 employees and sales topping $13 billion last year, designs and makes smartphones, laptops, tablets and smartwatches for customers including Vivo, Xiaomi Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Lenovo Group Ltd., Amazon. com Inc. and Acer Inc. A partnership with Lava would give Huaqin deeper access to one of the world's fastest-growing major electronics markets that has an abundance of labor cheaper than that in China. For Lava, the pact would bring in much-needed capital and expertise as the company seeks to become a formidable electronics player.
The venture would employ more than 100,000 people and “put India on the global map for design, supply chain and manufacturing,” Lava said in the letter. “It would help bring the supply chain ecosystem & much needed skills and technology to India.”
Represent
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