Hon Hai unit to close India phone plant on shift in client base

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic goods, will shut operations at a mobile-phone facility in India due to a change in its customer base, it said on Thursday. The facility in southern India will shut down at end-December, it said, but did not give details about the changes in the customer base. "This action is also related to a restructuring being carried out of our India operations," according to the statement from FIH Mobile Ltd, a mobile-product arm of Hon Hai, which assembles products for clients like Apple Inc at factories predominantly in China. The factory in India currently employs 1,700 workers, the company said. Hon Hai, which employs over 1 million people worldwide, has been attempting to diversify into new industries, investing in a 4G network in its native Taiwan and a South Korean IT services provider. It reported a 12.9 percent rise in revenue in November, traditionally a high season as it reaps the benefits of key clients' holiday gadget sales. Kylie Huang, a Taipei-based analyst with Daiwa-Cathay Capital Markets, said the shutdown also reflects Hon Hai's redeployment of resources towards fast-growing local Indian tech brands like Micromax Informatics Ltd. "This is a long-term move on FIH's part," Huang said. (Reporting by Michael Gold; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)