Smartphone Maker Vivo set To open ₹3,000-cr India facility in July

Vivo, a Chinese smartphone maker, plans to unveil one of India's largest mobile phone manufacturing plants next month, with an annual capacity of 120 million handsets and an expenditure of more than ₹3,000 crore.

According to persons familiar with the matter, the corporation is also aggressively seeking an Indian joint venture (JV) partner to oversee its manufacturing activities. It had held talks with the Tata Group and the Murugappa Group, as well as Indian contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies, to form a joint venture, but they had not been successful so far, owing to valuation discrepancies. "Vivo is keen on having a strong Indian partner for its operations. While nothing has been finalised so far around the JV, talks are on with a few stakeholders," a person aware of the matter told ET.

The firm recently vacated its old manufacturing facility, which was leased and had an annual capacity of 40 million gadgets. Bhagwati Enterprises, the manufacturing unit of Micromax Informatics, has taken over that plant.

Vivo's new factory spans 170 acres in Greater Noida and compares to Samsung's own mobile phone manufacturing plant, the country's largest, which opened in 2018 and has a capacity to produce 120 million units per year.

Dixon announced in April that it will acquire a majority position in Ismartu India, a manufacturing subsidiary of Chinese phone manufacturer Transsion Holdings. Dixon plans to buy a 50.10% share in Ismartu India for ₹238.36 crore in cash and gradually increase its stake to roughly 55%.