Taiwan-based electronics contract manufacturing company, Foxconn Technology Group, is planning to invest around $2 billion in India. The manufacturer is also planning to buy the non-functioning Nokia facility in Chennai. The company was serving as a vendor to the Nokia plant before it was shut down.
Foxconn?s interest in acquiring the facility has come after its client, Micromax Informatics Limited reportedly expressed interest in sourcing around 25 per cent of components domestically for manufacturing their handset equipment in India from Foxconn. The deal would however depend on whether Foxconn is able to take over the plant. At present, Micromax?s mobile handsets are manufactured by Foxconn in China.
If the company is through with the purchase, the proceeds from the sale of the facility will reportedly be deposited into an escrow account, which shall be given to the winner of the tax dispute after the final court ruling. The Nokia manufacturing plant is currently under a tax dispute between Nokia and the government and was closed in November 2014 after Microsoft decided to stop using the facility. Microsoft had acquired the Finland-based company in a deal worth $7.2 billion; however the Chennai facility was not a part of the deal owing to its tax dispute.
