Dixon Partners Vivo To Make Smartphones In India

SUMMARY

Dixon Technologies and vivo India signed a binding term sheet on December 15, 2024, to form a joint venture for manufacturing smartphones, with Dixon holding 51% stake and vivo India 49%.

The proposed joint venture will manufacture vivo smartphones in India and can undertake OEM orders for other brands, adding to Dixon's existing partnerships with major smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Google Pixel.

Dixon, which currently holds 11% market share in smartphone contract manufacturing, has a capacity of 50 million smartphones across four plants and manufactured more than 12 million smartphones in H1 FY25, excluding Samsung devices.

Homegrown electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies has reportedly inked a pact with Vivo India to launch an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) facility via a joint venture.

In a filing to the exchanges, Dixon said that both of them have executed a binding term sheet on December 15, 2024 for a proposed joint venture in India for carrying on the business as an original equipment manufacturer of electronic devices, including smartphones.

Dixon will hold 51% stake in the JV while the remaining 49% will be held by Vivo India.

However, neither Dixon nor Vivo India will have any stake in each other.

Atul B Lall, vice chairman and managing director of Dixon, said, “This partnership further strengthens our strong foothold in the android smartphone ecosystem in India. There is immense potential to further build on shared capabilities together in times to come, to deliver sustainable growth for the proposed venture.”

“The proposed joint venture will undertake part of vivo’s OEM orders of smartphones in India, and can also engage in OEM business of various electronic products of other brands. This partnership will effectively complement the current manufacturing operations of Vivo India,” said Jerome Chen, chief executive of Vivo India.

This comes at a time when Dixon looks to expand its smartphone manufacturing capabilities. The company currently has a capacity of 50 Mn smartphones and 30 Mn feature phones across four plants. In the first half of FY25, Dixon manufactured more than 12 Mn smartphones, excluding Samsung devices.

The contract manufacturer already produces smartphones for major brands, including Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Ismartu (brands like Itel, Infinix, Tecno), Motorola, Google Pixel, and Nothing.

According to Counterpoint Research, Dixon held 11% market share in smartphone contract manufacturing from January to September 2024.

It is pertinent to note that Dixon is a beneficiary of the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and has consistently achieved its targets in smartphone manufacturing.

The company recently signed agreements with major laptop manufacturers including HP, Lenovo, and Acer to manufacture IT hardware products under the PLI 2.0 scheme through its upcoming facility in Tamil Nadu.