According to Michael Ganal, a member of the group's management board, the BMW brand was the only premium brand in Thailand to achieve two-digit growth with a volume of 2,822 vehicles, a 13-per-cent rise on the 2005 figure of 2,502. The group's other brands are the Mini and Rolls-Royce.

The BMW Group had 40 per cent of the premium segment in the Kingdom last year.

Its Mini brand suffered due to supply issues, with sales falling to only 276 vehicles.

In Malaysia, the BMW Group delivered 3,472 vehicles to customers - a rise of 8 per cent on the 2005 figure of 3,213.

Mini did not attain the previous year's retail level, with 170 vehicles sold, but the launch of the new Mini at the end of March is expected to boost sales.

In Malaysia, the BMW Group has also concluded an agreement with Sime Darby to acquire SimeLease and its subsidiary SimeCredit, a precursor to BMW Financial Services entering the Malaysian market, pending the Foreign Investment Committee's approval.

In the Philippines, the company secured market leadership in the

premium segment with a share of 53 per cent and a retail volume of 803 units.

The premium segment in Indonesia registered a decline due to economic pressures, resulting in overall sales of 1,562 vehicles, a fall of 58 per cent from 2005. Correspondingly, BMW Group sales decreased by 52 per cent to 600 vehicles.

The BMW Group remains optimistic about its prospects this year.

"We expect our retail growth to stay on a high level. We plan to meet our 2008 retail target of 1.4 million vehicles this year. Three years ago, we set an annual retail target for Asia of 150,000 vehicles to be achieved by 2008. We intend to move a fair step closer to this target this year," Ganal said.

The group - comprising the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands - maintained its leadership in the Asian luxury-car market for the fourth consecutive year, with sales of 126,949 vehicles, up 13.8 per cent from the 111,571 units sold in 2005.

BMW brand sales reached 109,848 units, up 15.5 per cent compared to slightly more than 95,000 units in 2005. The company also sold 142 Rolls-Royce Phantoms - up by almost 40 per cent - as well as close to 17,000 Minis and 3,620 motorcycles.

On a worldwide basis, the company increased sales by 3.5 per cent with 1.37 million deliveries, compared to 1.32 million in 2005.

Group revenue rose by 5 per cent to ¤48.9 billion (Bt2.18 trillion) and the company also reaffirmed last month that its 2006 pre-tax earnings would hit ¤4 billion.

"The BMW Group grew more strongly in Asia than in any other region of the world. This means we are going to strengthen our presence in the individual markets in the years to come. We will continue our product and market initiatives, and invest further," Ganal said.

The company officially opened its subsidiary BMW India recently in Gurgaon, New Delhi, and is due to open a production plant in Madras in southern India, creating its fifth factory in Asia.

The plant will assemble the 3 Series at the end of March and the 5 Series in May.

BMW India will also be the only car manufacturer in India to offer financial services such as direct wholesale financing and retail financing. It plans to sell 1,000 cars in India this year, up from 257 last year.

In the region covering mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the company experienced the highest growth rate in Asia with sales of 44,700 vehicles, up 35.4 per cent on the previous year.

In South Korea, the third-largest growth market for BMW Group in Asia, sales grew by more than 10 per cent to 7,250 vehicles.

Kingsley Wijayasinha

The Nation

SINGAPORE