India’s Vedanta to take over Foxconn chip JV from holding company

INDIA’S metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta said on Friday (Jul 7) that it would take over from its holding company the ownership of a joint venture with Taiwan’s Foxconn that was set up to make semiconductors.

Vedanta also said it would also take over a display glass manufacturing venture from Volcan Investments, Vedanta’s holding company.

Volcan and Foxconn signed a pact last year to invest US$19.5 billion to set up semiconductor and display production plants in the state of Gujarat in west India to tap into the country’s plans to become an electronics major.

However, the project was proceeding slowly as talks to rope in European chipmaker STMicroelectronics as a partner got deadlocked, Reuters reported last month.

Moreover, Vedanta’s disclosures last year related to the deal made it seem like it was running the project. It later clarified that Volcan Investments would take the helm.

Still, India’s marker regulator, after an investigating, penalised Vedanta last week, saying it had broken regulations by initially making it appear it had partnered with Foxconn. REUTERS