UPDATE 2-Acer Q2 sales up 33 pct, no concerns about slowdown

(Changes dateline, adds more details, quotes)

By Faith Hung and Georgina Prodhan

TAIPEI/LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Acer Inc (2353.TW), the world's third-biggest PC vendor, said it had no major concerns about effects on its business of an economic slowdown after posting a 33 percent increase in sales in the second quarter.

Sales rose to 124.8 billion Taiwan dollars ($4.1 billion), Acer said on Thursday, while net profit grew 48 percent to 2.92 billion Taiwan dollars, below the average forecast of 3.13 billion Taiwan dollars in a Reuters poll.

Acer is expanding aggressively into emerging markets and through acquisitions in developed markets and had 9.4 percent of the market in the second quarter, behind Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and Dell (DELL.O), according to research firm Gartner.

Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci said Acer expected to continue to gain market share in the third and fourth quarters and to grow at about 5 to 10 percentage points above market rates.

Separately, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said the company expected third-quarter net profit to be higher than the previous three months as the U.S. housing downturn and global inflationary woes had little impact on its business.

"We weren't really affected by the subprime crisis and global inflation problems," Wang told reporters on the sidelines of a business event in Taipei.

"We expect profit to be higher also due to new products being launched after we acquired Gateway."

Lanci said sales should rise this quarter by 20-25 percent compared with last quarter and Acer's operating margin should be stable or slightly improve.

He had no major concerns about slowing markets in western Europe, he told journalists and analysts on a conference call, but Turkey and China were slightly down.

Lanci said Acer expected to ship about 25 million laptop computers this year and could increase that number by about 30 percent in 2009. Previously it had said it would ship about 25-30 million, excluding its new low-cost Aspire One PCs.

But Acer's Aspire One notebooks will likely sell only 5-6 million this year instead of the planned 6-7 million because of a delay in shipping the first models, caused by component shortages and software glitches, Lanci said.

"Instead of the end of May we shipped at the end of June," he said. "Delivery this month was very, very good. We also have a big plan for August."

Sales of so-called netbooks, lighter, simpler and cheaper than regular laptops, have taken off since Asustek (2357.TW) -- Acer's Taiwanese rival -- launched its hit Eee PC.

Shares of Acer finished 0.31 percent lower on Thursday, versus a 0.65 percent fall of the broader market .TWII. (Additional reporting by Argin Chang; Writing by Lee Chyen Yee and Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Mike Nesbit and Erica Billingham)