DAIRY giant Murray Goulburn has confirmed it will make another offer to take control of rival Warrnambool Cheese and Butter.

The news follows the co-operative's announcement to its supplier-shareholders last month that it was behind one of the failed takeover bids for the Allansford company.

MG chairman Grant Davies said the co-operative's bid would be made "in the near future".

MG offered WCB about $3.90 a share in its initial proposal but Mr Davies would not say what price the co-operative would offer a second time around.

WCB may have squashed takeover attempts late last year - by MG and another believed to be by Canadian dairy processor Saputo - but speculation about its future continues.

Industry sources say it is not a matter of if WCB will be taken over, but when.

In May, WCB share ownership restriction will move from 10 per cent to 15 per cent and in May next year the cap will be lifted completely.

Rabobank senior analyst Tim Hunt said there were two "basic" reasons why WCB was attracting takeover interest.

"WCB is in a region with the most reliable milk pool," he said.

"A region with the best growth prospect.

"Also it's the only major cheese plant in southern Victoria."

He said for a player like MG, the WCB operation would "bolt on quite well", with similar product portfolios, selling into similar markets.

WCB chief executive officer John McLean said that to understand MG's interest in the region's biggest cheese factory, the industry had to "put two and two together".

"MG just closed a factory in northern Victoria," Mr McLean said.

"They have an idle factory and there is nothing more useless than a milk factory with no milk going through it."

He said the dairy growth areas were southwest Victoria and southeast South Australia.

"Who is sitting right in the middle of that region? WCB," he said.

"It is pretty obvious."

Dismissing industry talk about a takeover of WCB as "pub-talk", he said the company had no price in mind and it was not for sale.

WCB's half-year financial information will be released next week and Mr McLean anticipates "very good news".

As interest in WCB heats up, other industry players have remained silent.

A Fonterra spokesman would not comment on WCB specifically, but said Fonterra was always looking at opportunities to expand in Australia.

Barry Irvin, chairman of Bega Cheese, which owns Tatura Milk Industries, said the business was "very keen to see what happens" with WCB and MG, but at this stage Bega would remain an "interested observer".