Apple iPad maker BYD pays $2.2bn for Jabil’s China plants

The electronics arm of electric-vehicle maker BYD has agreed to buy Jabil’s manufacturing business in China for CNY15.8bn ($2.2bn), expanding its reach in mobile devices.

Unit of China’s BYD

BYD Electronic International, a non-wholly owned unit of China’s BYD, is taking over the US company’s product manufacturing business located in Chengdu and Wuxi, China, it said in a statement Monday. The pact includes the manufacturing of products for existing customers.

The deal accelerates the company’s expansion into mobile electronics making.

The EV giant’s electronics arm makes a wide variety of products from smartphone cases to wireless modules used in cars, and it operates plants in China and Vietnam that make components for Apple.

Jabil has been one of the largest contractor makers in China, hiring tens of thousands of workers in Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces to make and assemble parts for Apple.

The company said in a separate statement the sale will allow it to “enhance our shareholder-centric capital framework, including incremental share buybacks.”