The battle between Australia's grain handlers intensified on Friday, when ABB Grain announcing a review of charges to farmers just as GrainCorp revealed a Aus$200m war chest.

ABB Grain, in its first strategy announcement since agreeing a takeover by Canada's Viterra, said it had revised its storage and handling charges to ensure the group "is in a strong position to actively compete for growers' business".

The new schedule of charges will be published following the completion of the Viterra deal, the Adelaide-based group said. A shareholder vote is expected in September.

'Opportunistic growth'

The announcement came as GrainCorp, its Sydney-based rival, said that demand for new stock in its cash call had been so "overwhelming" that it would have to return Aus$72m of shareholders' money.

Regulatory limits on issues of shares prevented the company accepting any more than Aus$138m, GrainCorp said.

The issue, coupled with an institutional placing, takes the proceeds of GrainCorp's recent fund-raisings to nearly Aus$200m, which will be used for paying off debt and, potentially, for acqusitions .

"The new capital will position the company to… take advantage of opportunistic growth should any suitable investments arise," the company said.

Pricing details 

Shares in Australia's grain handlers have been helped by official forecasts of an Australian wheat harvest of 22.0m tonnes in 2009-10, with data from farm marketing adviser ProFarmer on Friday signalling a higher potential production.

GrainCorp will on July 8 confirm details of the shareholder reimbursements and the pricing of the stock.

The group on May 18, said it would price the new shares at Aus$6.25 unless price of existing GrainCorp shares averaged much below Aus$6.75 in late June, when a further discount would apply.

The shares closed four cents higher at Aus$7.45 in Sydney on Friday.

ABB stock ended up 15 cents at Aus$9.40.