Japan's Canon Inc <7751.T> said its tender offer for shares in Oce NV has raised its stake in the Dutch printer maker to 84 percent, moving closer to its target of turning Oce into a wholly owned subsidiary.

The company plans to continue acquiring Oce shares it has not already owned in the market, a Canon spokesman said.

Canon, which competes with Ricoh Co Ltd <7752.T> and Xerox Corp in copiers and printers, announced its plan last November to buy Oce for 730 million euros to strengthen its product lineup and broaden distribution channels.

It offered 8.6 euros for each Oce share in its tender offer, which ran from January 29 to March 1, bringing Canon's stake in Oce to 71 percent.

Following an additional two-week tender offer period that ended on Friday, Canon's stake now stands at 84 percent.

Canon's move comes amid a flurry of acquisitions in the office machine sector, including Ricoh's purchase of U.S. office gear distributor Ikon Office Solutions and Xerox's takeover of Global Imaging, as industry consolidation gathers momentum.

Oce makes an ideal takeover target as the two companies' products have little overlap, with the Japanese manufacturer strong in regular office machines and mid- to lower-end production printers while Oce excels in high-end and advertisement-use large-sized printers, Canon has said.

Production printers, or digital commercial printers, are used to print large documents such as product manuals and direct mail items quickly and in bulk, and are a fast-growing segment of the global office equipment market.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka)

Japan