Goodman Fielder, one of Australia’s largest listed food companies, may be on the verge of a takeover bid from Asian agribusiness giant Wilmar International.

Goodman Fielder, the company behind food brands such as White Wings, Helga’s, Meadow Lea and Praise, confirmed on Tuesday that Wilmar International had increased its stake in the company, sparking heavy buying in the stock.

Goodman Fielder’s shares rose 17 cents, or 33.01 per cent, to 68.5 cents on Tuesday.

Wilmar claims to be Asia’s top agribusiness group and is no stranger to the Australian scene, having bought CSR’s sugar and energy business for $1.75 billion in December 2010.

The Singapore-based company processes and sells palm and lauric oils internationally.

Wilmar previously held under five per cent of Goodman Fielder, and raised that to a 10 per cent stake on Tuesday.

However, Goodman said that it had not received any takeover offers from Wilmar or any other party.

Investors were spurred by speculation an offer was likely to come, perhaps from another party, an analyst told AAP.

“We now need to wait and see confirmation that it is Wilmar as is speculated and what they’re next step is,” the analyst said.

Wilmar’s moves to increase its stake in Goodman Fielder was surprising, the analyst said.

“There’s certainly parts of Goodman’s business like the edible oils … that would make sense for Wilmar to be interested in.

“But then again, there’s other parts like fresh baking and fresh diary, that we’re surprised they’d be interested in, in that it’s not really complementary to their current portfolio of businesses.”

Wilmar has recently been in talks with Goodman about the Australian company’s strategy to sell non-core assets.