Taiwan's Mediatek raises Q3 sales forecast

TAIPEI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Taiwan's top chip designer Mediatek Inc (2454.TW) raised its estimate for third-quarter sales growth on Friday to 22 to 25 percent due to robust handphone demand in emerging countries.

"We made the current adjustment mainly due to better-than-expected sales of handphones in July and August in emerging markets," the company said in a statement. "That boosted our clients' orders for cellphone chips in September."

In July, Mediatek said its third quarter sales would grow 8-10 percent from the previous three months, and that its gross profit margin would be flat in the third quarter compared with the second.

As a fabless chip company, Mediatek designs microchips for mobile phones, DVD players and digital TVs and then contracts the manufacturing out to foundries, or contract chip makers. (Reporting by Roger Tung)