NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - Hedge funds Nut Tree

Capital Management and Caspian Capital have made a sweetened bid

to acquire fuels storage and transporter Martin Midstream

Partners ( MMLP ), according to a letter seen by Reuters on

Monday.

The new offer would give unitholders of Martin Midstream ( MMLP )

$4.50 per unit in cash and value the company at nearly $176

million, up from the $4 per unit bid from the hedge funds on

July 11.

The offer is the latest attempt from the hedge funds to

thwart a rival takeover bid from Martin Midstream's ( MMLP ) largest

shareholder, Martin Resource Management Corporation (MRMC),

which has offered $3.05 per unit in cash to acquire all common

units it did not already own.

MRMC is headed by Ruben S. Martin III, whose father in 1951

set up the business to which MRMC and Martin Midstream ( MMLP ) trace

their roots.

In the letter to the board committee of Martin Midstream ( MMLP ) set

up to evaluate MRMC's proposal, Nut Tree and Caspian indicated

they were open to submitting an even higher bid to buy Martin

Midstream's ( MMLP ) common units, if they are granted access to the

company's books and are allowed to enter into a confidentiality

pact that allows the exchange of commercially sensitive

information.

Kilgore, Texas-based Martin Midstream's ( MMLP ) common units were

trading at $3.42 on Monday, giving the company a market value of

roughly $135 million. Including debt, the company is valued at

about $518 million, according to LSEG data.

Martin Midstream ( MMLP ) and MRMC did not immediately respond to

requests for comment.