P527ORACLE 527 Mon17 Feb C4 1704:17   HOLMES A' COURT  RAISES BHP BID Mr Robert Holmes a' Court has raised the stakes in his bid for Australia's largest company, BHP, with a move designed to give him 50% of the equity. The new bid, which comes just two weeks after his original terms, offers to buy half of every BHP shareholding. The move will raise the cost of the bid to his Bell Group from A$1.9bn to A$3.5bn, but the offer still contains many of the unusual conditions. Among these are a limit on the cash outlay to A$2bn and insistence on no material change to the local oil price. * HOLIDAYS GALORE! * 580