Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn acquires 300-acre site in Bengaluru

Hon Hai Precision Industry has bought a 300 acre land for approximately Rs 300 crore ($37 million) in the Bangalore rural district of Karnataka, filings with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) showed. The purchase was done on behalf of its subsidiary Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development, APF reported on May 9.

The land tract is in Devanahalli near the Bengaluru airport, in the outskirts of Bangalore. The move comes as the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer looks to diversify production away from China. Foxconn is the biggest supplier of Apple iPhone parts.

Plans in motion
Notably, the Karnataka government had on March 20 also said Foxconn will invest Rs 8,000 crore for a mobile manufacturing unit offering employment opportunities for 50,000 people in the state. This came after Foxconn CEO and chairman Young Liu visited the state and held a meeting with CM Basavaraj Bommai.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union minister of state for entrepreneurship, electronics & technology, had alsdo tweeted that Apple phones will be built in a new 300-acre factory in Karnataka. The 300-acre land at Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) industrial area at Doddaballapur in Devanahalli Taluk near the Bengaluru International Airport was identified on March 3.

The electronics manufacturing unit is projected to generate more than 1 lakh employment opportunities in the next 10 years within the state.

Making base in India
Earlier this month Telangana principal secretary of IT and Industries Jayesh Ranjan told Moneycontrol that Foxconn will hold a “ground-breaking” ceremony in the state on May 15.

The much publicised investment, which is expected to create 1 lakh jobs, will reportedly be the company’s biggest single outlay in India. Queries to Ranjan on the size of the investment, the products that Foxconn will make and other details went unanswered.

There has been a lot of buzz around Karnataka and Telangana governments announcing Foxconn’s “interest” in investing in their states. A day after the iPhone-maker signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Telangana on March 2, the Karnataka government said that Foxconn would invest in the state and it had identified a 300-acre space for the company.

Foxconn, however, had then said it had not “entered into any binding, definitive agreements” during its chairman Young Liu’s recent trip to India. AFP