REFILE-UPDATE 1-Australia's ABB Grain to raise A$170mln

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SYDNEY, June 3 (Reuters) - ABB Grain Ltd ABB.AX, Australia's top barley exporter, plans to raise at least A$170 million ($162 million) in fresh equity to help fund a new malthouse to meet Asia's growing demand for beer. ABB Grain said it would place 18.3 million new shares, the equivalent of 12.2 percent of its issued share capital, with local and foreign investors, taking advantage of its share price which has climbed 28 percent so far this year despite a weaker overall market.

"As people become more affluent in Asia, they tend to drink more beer and assume more Western tastes," an ABB Grain spokesman said, adding that Asian annual beer consumption was growing at 7-8 percent a year compared with minimal growth in the domestic market.

The new malthouse, with an annual capacity of about 110,000 tonnes, would raise the firm's annual malt output by 22 percent to about 610,000 tonnes by 2011, the spokesman said.

The malt will be exported to Asia, where it is used to produce beer. ABB also exports malting barley to China, where it is turned into malt and used to produce beer.

The placement would be fully underwritten and carried out via a book-building, the company said in a statement. It called a halt to trade in its shares pending the placement.

ABB Grain, which last traded at A$10.80 per share, is riding a boom in demand for farm goods. It produces barley and malt for the brewing and food-ingredients industry as well as feed for the livestock industry.

Some of the placement proceeds would be used for a feed mill and new feed-storage facilities in New Zealand, the world's biggest exporter of diary products, ABB Grain said. ($1=A$1.05) (Reporting by Mark Bendeich)