According to reports, in September, Honor, the Chinese smartphone maker will be re-entering the Indian market in a new form. The formerly Huawei owned brand is being licensed by PSAV Global, which is Gurgaon-based, that will be investing ₹1,000 crore via debt funding for setting up operations in India and being fully controlled by local partners.
According to Madhav Sheth, the former head of smartphone player Realme who is currently the chief executive of Honor Tech and one of the two partners in PSAV Global, the strategic joint venture partnership will ensure that unlike other Chinese players operating in the market where strategic decisions are not in the hands of India’s operational heads, local partners will make decisions.
He said, “Any of the Chinese manufacturers who are functioning in India right now, are 100% Chinese-owned equity companies. Their decision-making is also by Chinese people. This would be a 100% Indian equity-owned company; we will be investing ₹1,000 crore by December in technology transfers, product and software development, and service setups in India.”
Honor will be re-entering amid a crackdown on Chinese companies where some apps have been banned, and at a point when the government raised the scrutiny of investments from border countries among which was China that now requires an approval thay is mandatory.
Sheth pointed out that while Chinese products bring quality and technology to consumers, Honor gives choice to customers as a product without “bloatware”, referring to the pre-installed apps that users cannot remove, which are commonly found in Android mobile phones from several Chinese brands. He also added that the strategic joint venture will become a corporate governance for other companies for engaging in business in India through licensing or joint venture.
Sheth noted that the the Indian government has given the required approvals to the company and the company is now looking forward to introduce a series of devices starting September through Amazon for the online market and multi-brand outlets for the offline market. The company is targeting profitability within the year on revenues of ₹10,000 crore by December 2024. Sheth is also looking for sourcing the bulk of the 300 components needed in mobile manufacturing locally, along with building local partnerships for securing technology transfers through joint ventures for the improvement of the technology as well as skill sets required for upgrading the local supply chains and adding value.
Honor phones will be manufactured in India in the upcoming months. Sheth said that the company was deciding on setting up manufacturing or associatijg itself with local manufacturing provider for partnerships. Devices including foldable smartphones will be available at price range of Rs 8,500 to Rs 80,000.
