P. M. BRIEFING : N.Y. Bidder Raises Ante for Gateway

A group headed by Wasserstein Perella & Co. today raised its bid for the British food-store chain Gateway Corp. PLC by $71 million in an effort to defeat an offer from rival Isosceles PLC.

The aggressive New York investment firm and its partner, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., is now offering $3.75 a share, up from $3.67 a share.

Based on Gateway’s roughly 890 million shares outstanding, the new offer is worth about $3.34 billion. The bidders, operating under the name Newgateway, said this was their final offer.

While the bid exceeds the $3.56-a-share cash portion of the Isosceles’ offer, it falls short of what Isosceles’ advisers claim their cash-and-stock bid is worth--between $3.79 and $3.87 a share.