Luxshare Precision Industry Co. acquires Wistron Corp’s iPhone production business in China through a $472 million deal, which could fit the first continental company to win a coveted role in meeting the commercial tensions of Apple Inc.’s devices.
Wistron, founded in Taiwan, one of only three brands that bring together Apple’s iPhones, said Friday that it had agreed to sell two subsidiaries in eastern China for 3.3 billion yuan to Luxshare. One of those units, founded in the city of Kunshan, is Wistron’s only iPhone production site, according to other people familiar with the company’s activities.
The deal is a victory for Luxshare, which produces accessories and components, cables and antenna chargers, but it is also the world’s largest manufacturer of Apple AirPods, a lucrative business that helped the company become one of Asia’s most productive companies in 2019. In turn, Apple sought out a component of mainland China to expand its local resources in an industrial war.
A representative of Wistron said that the Kunshan site sold to Luxshare manufactures smartphones, laptops and connected devices, and that the company will move production of some of those products to other parts of China. She declined to comment on her iPhone business. An Apple representative did not respond to a comment request sent by email.
Luxshare and other contracted brands have long sought to compete to bring together Apple’s most profitable device. Wistron is the smallest of the 3 iPhone integrators, behind Pegatron Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the company also known as Foxconn. Wistron continues to bring up less expensive iPhones in India.
“With the acquisition of Wistron’s iPhone unit, Luxshare can now mount an iPhone,” said Jeff Pu, an analyst at GF Securities. “This will first pose a risk to Pegatron’s iPhone business in China.”
The agreement is expected to be finale until the end of the year with regulatory approval, Wistron said in an emailed statement.
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