March 24 (Bloomberg) -- D&M Holdings Inc., the maker of the Denon and Marantz brands of speakers, surged by a record in Tokyo trading after Jiji Press reported Harman International Industries Inc. offered to buy the company.

D&M jumped 31 percent, its daily limit, to 341 yen at the trading close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, paring the loss for the year to 27 percent. That was the largest gain for Kanagawa, Japan-based D&M since its listing in May 2002.

Harman's offer was in response to an invitation for tenders by Brussels-based RHJ International, which owns a 49 percent stake and will select a buyer as early as this ``spring,'' Jiji reported March 21, citing unidentified people. If Harman is successful in buying all of RHJ's shares in D&M, acquisition costs would total 70 billion yen ($700 million), Jiji said.

Amsterdam-based Royal Philips Electronics NV also plans to sell its 12 percent shareholding, according to the report. Calls to the Washington office of Harman, whose audio equipment is used in the Royal Albert Hall and Rolls-Royce cars, weren't immediately answered late Sunday local time.

D&M Chief Financial Officer Yoshiyuki Honda said he can't comment on the report. Kanagawa, Japan-based D&M said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange that it hasn't made any announcement regarding a stake sale. Sono Uchiyama, a spokeswoman at RHJ's Japan unit, said she can't comment on speculative reports.

D&M's market value was 24.4 billion yen as of March 21, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Timothy Collins, founder of New York-based asset manager Ripplewood Holdings LLC, is co-chief executive officer of RHJ.

To contact the reporter on this story: Junko Hayashi in Tokyo at juhayashi@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 24, 2008 04:45 EDT