Canon annual net income to rise 14 percent -paper

TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Canon Inc. (7751.T), the world's top camera and copier maker, may report a 14 percent increase in net income for 2007 on robust sales of the company's core products, the Nikkei newspaper said on Friday.

Net income at the Japanese company this year may total about 520 billion yen ($4.4 billion), which exceeds the company's forecast by about 25 billion yen, the business daily reported.

That also beats the market average estimate of 504 billion yen based on 19 analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimates.

Annual sales may also rise 9 percent to 4.55 trillion yen, about 100 billion yen above the company's existing estimate, the newspaper reported.

Quarterly net income for the January-March period is also expected to rise 21 percent to 130 billion yen, the report said. That is about 10 billion yen above the company's initial forecast.

((Reporting by Aiko Wakao and Edwina Gibbs. aiko.wakao.reuters.com@reuters.net; Email: aiko.wakao@reuters.com; Tel:+81-3-3432-8595))

($1=118.20 Yen)

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