Bridgestone raises offer for Pep Boys to $947 mln

(Adds Bridgestone's new offer, background)

Dec 24 (Reuters) - Japanese tire maker Bridgestone Corp raised its offer to buy U.S. auto parts maker Pep Boys-Manny Moe & Jack to $947 million, still below a possible sweetened offer by activist investor Carl Icahn.

Bridgestone raised its offer by $1.50 to $17 per share.

Pep Boys said it no longer deemed the Icahn bid to be a "superior proposal."

Icahn was willing to pay as much as $1 billion to buy Pep Boys to keep rival Bridgestone at bay, Pep Boys said earlier on Thursday.

Icahn's current offer stands at $16.50 per share, or about $900 million. Icahn had said he would top any fresh Bridgestone offer by 10 cents per share, capping it at $18.10 per share.

Bridgestone had until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday to make another proposal.

Icahn was not immediately available for comment.

Bridgestone said on Thursday that its revised offer includes $84 million in additional cash consideration to Pep Boys shareholders.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC was the financial adviser to Bridgestone and Jones Day the legal adviser.

Rothschild is the financial adviser to Pep Boys, and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is legal adviser.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera, Aurindom Mukherjee and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Sunil Nair and Leslie Adler)