Airtel will soon start purchasing telecom equipment from a new joint venture (JV) company. The JV in concern will be formed by the partnership of Bharti Enterprises and Dixon. For the unaware, Dixon has been in the market since 1993, producing and manufacturing a variety of electronic goods and appliances.
Dixon and Bharti Enterprise’s partnership will be focused on manufacturing telecom related products such as routers, Set-Top Boxes (STBs), modems, and more for the industry. Airtel will also purchase equipment from the JV.
The JV company will soon go ahead with filing the necessary documents with the Ministry of Communications (MoC). It will also look for any other nodal agency available to get as much as benefit it can from the Production LinkedIn (PLI) scheme of the government.
Once the agreement is completed, and all the paperwork is done officially, Bharti Enterprises will hold a minority stake of 24% in the company, while Dixon will hold the remaining 74%.
Saurabh Gupta, CFO of Dixon Technologies, said that it is a delight for the company to partner with Bharti Enterprises. He said that Bharti Enterprises is an ideal long-term partner for the company.
Both the companies will be able to leverage each other’s resources and knowledge to develop and manufacture new networking and telecom products. This is a strategic partnership for both the companies since the Bharti group has a lot of experience in the telecom domain, while Dixon is great at large-scale manufacturing of electronic goods.
Airtel will be a key customer for the upcoming JV company. The Indian telcos can’t purchase their gear for network core from Chinese vendors or any vendor that’s not on the ‘trusted’ list of the government.
More local manufacturers and equipment makers will stand to benefit the country at a time such as this. This partnership might just be the start for the companies in that direction.
