Rolls-Royce eyes Thailand, Vietnam

The German-owned British automaker announced Monday sales jumped 31 per cent to 3,538 vehicles last year, up from the 2,711 units in 2010, and was the highest-ever annual total in the company's 107-year history.

The surging sales were driven by demand from China and the United States, it said, with 47 per cent year-over-year growth in Asia-Pacific, 17 per cent in North America and 23 per cent in the Middle East.

"(Asia Pacific) is the fastest-growing region. We have seen growth literally in all markets - Korea, Japan," Torsten Müller-Ötvös, chief executive officer at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, told AFP on a visit to Hong Kong.

"We are now entering Thailand. We are looking also at Vietnam, Indo-China in a broader sense to see what kind of opportunities that we have here," he said, but declined to elaborate citing ongoing discussions.