14 DAY TRIAL // Indian mobile phone maker Micromax had no interest in buying a stake in South Korean vendor Pantech, a company’s official unveiled today.
Micromax is the largest homegrown handset maker in India, and it does not appear keen on investing in other companies out there, even if opportunities emerge, it seems.
A recent Reuters report suggested that the vendor would be interested in buying a stake in Pantech, but it appears that things are not quite as such.
Said Micromax official confirmed to ET that the company was not interested in such a deal, a recent article on Times of India reads.
"We keep getting proposals from different companies but we're not seriously considering them at the moment. We had been approached by Pantech, but we were not enthused by it," the official said.
However, it seems that Micromax did not provide an official statement on the matter, and it remains to be seen what the outcome of said talks would be.
Micromax has seen increasing success in India over the past few years, and the company has decided not long ago to expand its operations to other markets out there as well.
At the moment, the phone maker is the second largest supplier of smartphones in India, enjoying a market share of 16 percent. The company is aiming at entering the top ten vendors list worldwide in the coming years.
The handset vendor is currently selling around 3 million devices each month, though only one third of these are smartphones. Moreover, it seems that about half of the company’s smartphone sales have been Canvas devices so far.
As Times of India notes, Micromax is set to increase its sales revenue by 40 or 50 percent during the current year. For reference, we should note that it managed to top $1 billion (€0.73 billion) in revenue for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2014.
At the moment, the company's smartphone lineup is formed by Android-based devices, though handsets running under the Windows Phone OS should arrive from it before the end of this year.
Pantech, on the other hand, the third largest smartphone maker in South Korea, is struggling to maintain its foothold after registering a series of disastrous quarters due to increasing competition on the smartphone market.
The company is selling devices in South Korea, the US and Japan, and is owned by Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics, and a series of creditor banks.
Provided that the two vendors are indeed in talks regarding a possible purchase, it might not be too long before some more details on the matter are provided, so stay tuned to learn the news.