Canadians add more jam to butter bid Mark and Joan Rea, holders of 100,000 WCB shares, attend yesterday's annual meeting in Warrnambool. THE fascinating battle to win control of Victorian dairy processor Warrnambool Cheese & Butter Factory Company has taken yet another twist. Canadian dairy giant Saputo is expected to boost its offer by $1 a share today, taking its bid from $7 a share to $8 a share. It is a bold move that values the venerable 125-year-old company at $448 million, trumping the counter $7.50-a-share offer from dominant Victorian co-operative processor Murray Goulburn last week, which bettered Saputo's earlier bid by 50c a share. Murray Goulburn's play, which the board yesterday said it was still evaluating, valued WCB at $7.50 for each of its 56 million shares, and the company at $430m. Bega Cheese, the Australian dairy company that last month launched the first hostile takeover bid for the western Victorian processor with a bid of $319m in a complex shares and cash offer to shareholders, has not yet responded to the latest bidding frenzy. It is expected to receive approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission next week for its unfriendly takeover, opening the way for what it claims could be a rapid purchase of WCB -- albeit at a higher price than yet flagged. The competing Saputo and Murray Goulburn bids have yet to be submitted for regulatory approvals from the ACCC and, in the case of Saputo, Foreign Investment Review Board approval is needed too. Bega Cheese already controls 18 per cent of WCB's 56 million shares, while Murray Goulburn currently holds a 17 per cent stake in the company. Another 30-40 per cent of the company's shares are owned by Warrnambool locals and the 3000 dairy farmers in south-western Victoria who supply WCB with its 890 million litres of milk annually. At yesterday's annual meeting of Warrnambool Cheese & Butter held in the coastal town's City Memorial Bowls club, it was standing room only as more than 300 shareholders turned up to discuss the fate of their local milk and dairy factory. The last time the dairy processor held its annual meeting in 2012, its shares were languishing at around the $2.50 mark and just a handful of its dairy farmer-shareholders turned up. Yesterday, as WCB shares hovered around the $8.15 mark on the ASX and dairy farmers flocked to hear more about their options, the company's board tangentially discussed the merits of the three rival offers for their treasured local company. Chairman Terry Richardson told the meeting it could be several weeks before his board made a final recommendation on which offer to accept. Mr Richardson said the current highest bidder, Murray Goulburn, was still to supply adequate detail to allow its offer of $7.50 a share, or $420m, to be evaluated for shareholder benefit. Mr Richardson said the earlier unanimous recommendation by WCB's directors to accept the $392m offer from Canadian dairy giant Saputo -- rather than the unfriendly $319m takeover bid by Bega Cheese -- had been overtaken by the late arrival of fellow Victorian dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn into the bidding war last week. "The board is still considering Murray Goulburn's takeover proposal and has sought further details," Mr Richardson told eager shareholders. "The Murray Goulburn offer is above the fair value range (set by WCB advisers KPMG) but is subject to uncertain competition conditions and (they) haven't expressed the same intentions in regard to suppliers, employees, future investment and direction that Saputo has done," Mr Richardson added. Mark Rea, grandson of one of the original founders of the butter factory, as it has always been called locally, holds 100,000 WCB shares, despite having passed his dairy farm with its 700 milking cows close by the Allansford factory on to his son last year. He is uncertain about which offer he prefers -- the original $319m bid from Bega Cheese, the later board-preferred bid from Canadian giant Saputo that values the company at $392m, or Victoria's Murray Goulburn cooperative trumping effort at $7.50 a share, valuing WCB at $420m. "In my heart I would prefer the Warrnambool Cheese & Butter factory to stay as it has since my grandfather's time, and in the 65 years I have held shares; but since we were listed I know it's got to go," Mr Rea said. I'm not in favour of Bega Cheese -- they are a bit small -- but between the other two bids it is hard to say because they are both good companies. Normally I'd say I would prefer WCB to stay Australian, which would mean preferring Murray Goulburn, but it seems that the Canadians are a really good company. The AGM heard the 2012-13 financial year had been difficult for WCB, with its export focus hit by low global prices for dairy goods and the high dollar.