Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Viterra Inc., the Canadian grain handler that’s buying ABB Grain Ltd., may have as much as C$500 million ($464 million) in cash for possible acquisitions while it focuses on integrating ABB, the chief executive officer said.

The cash balance will depend on the number of ABB shareholders opting for shares or cash, Mayo Schmidt, CEO of Regina, Saskatchewan-based Viterra, said today in an interview.

Shareholders of Adelaide, Australia-based ABB this week approved Viterra’s A$1.6 billion ($1.38 billion) acquisition. The purchase will allow Viterra to add supplies from the world’s second-largest barley exporter and No. 4 wheat shipper. Viterra has previously expanded through acquisitions, including a hostile bid for Agricore United in 2007 for C$1.76 billion.

The ABB acquisition “will leave us with a strong cash balance to operate our business, and at a point of our choosing to be acquisitive,” Schmidt, 52, said by telephone from Calgary. “Over the long term, we will be acquisitive. We will build out our processing businesses to support our raw ingredient collection system.”

Any acquisition would be focused in Canada, the U.S., Western Europe or Australia, Schmidt said. He has said the company is interested in assets including oat and wheat milling, oilseed crushing and livestock-feed manufacturing.

Earlier today, Viterra said third-quarter net income fell to C$120.7 million or 51 cents a share, for the three months through July from C$166.7 million, or 71 cents, a year earlier.

Viterra rose 25 cents, or 2.6 percent, to C$9.86 at 4:44 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. The shares have gained 3.8 percent this year.

Viterra, Canada’s leading canola exporter, spent C$64 million in June for a canola crushing plant in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba. The plant has a crushing capacity of 1,000 metric tons a day.

To contact the reporter on this story: Choy Leng Yeong in Seattle at clyeong@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 11, 2009 18:28 EDT