A Danish investment company has added its voice to the opposition to printer maker Océ’s takeover by Japan’s Canon.

At a shareholders’ meeting on Friday, Danish fund Sparinvest, which owns around 5.5% of Oce’s shares said the €8.60 per share offer did not reflect the full value of Oce.
Hermes Focus Asset Management and Orbis Portfolio Management, which control 13% of the shares between them, are also opposed to the deal.
But Océ CEO Rokus van Iperen told the meeting Canon’s offer was the best price. ‘We truly have tried to get a price as high as possible. We probably will not agree on whether it is high enough, but this is the best we could get,’ news agency Reuters quoted him as saying.
Van Iperen said Océ talked to four interested parties during a strategic review which began in mid 2008.
This resulted in two concrete offers, both for the whole company, Van Iperen said. One was rejected as too low.
Canon has said it would declare the offer unconditional if 85% of shares are tendered. The company currently owns some 28%, according to the Financieele Dagblad.