Sanmina Corporation, a leading integrated manufacturing solutions company, and Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Ltd. (RSBVL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), have entered into an agreement to create a joint venture through investment in Sanmina’s existing Indian entity Sanmina SCI India Private Ltd. (SIPL). The day-to-day business will continue to be managed by Sanmina’s existing management team in Chennai, which will be seamless from an employee and customer perspective. The joint venture will create an electronic manufacturing hub in India and will prioritise high technology infrastructure hardware, for growth markets, and across industries such as communications networking (5G, cloud infrastructure, hyperscale datacenters), medical and healthcare systems, industrial and cleantech, and defence and aerospace. In addition to supporting Sanmina’s current customer base, the joint venture will create a ‘Manufacturing Technology Center of Excellence that will serve as an incubation centre to support the product development and hardware start-up ecosystem in India, as well as promote research and innovation of leading-edge technologies, the companies said in a joint statement. RSBVL will hold a 50.1% equity stake in the joint venture entity with Sanmina owning the remaining 49.9%. RSBVL will achieve this ownership primarily through an investment of up to Rs 1,670 crore in new shares in Sanmina’s existing Indian entity, while Sanmina will contribute to its existing contract manufacturing business. As a result of the investment, the joint venture would be capitalised with over $200 million of cash to fund growth, the statement added. Through this joint venture, Sanmina expects to significantly grow the scale of this business over time and expand its Indian manufacturing footprint to serve the local and global demand for Hi-Tech equipment across industries. All the manufacturing will initially take place at Sanmina’s 100-acre campus in Chennai, with the ability for site expansion to support future growth opportunities as well as to potentially expand to new manufacturing sites in India over time-based on business needs. Jure Sola, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sanmina, said “This joint venture will serve both domestic and export markets and represents a major milestone in the Indian government’s “Make in India” initiative.” Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said, “For both growth and security, it is essential for India to be more self-reliant in electronics manufacturing in Telecom, IT, Data Centers, Cloud, 5G, New Energy and other industries as we chart our path in the new digital economy. Through this partnership we plan to boost innovation and talent in India, meeting both Indian and global demand.”
