MANILA - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) climbed 5.88% in early trade on Thursday shortly after reiterating that its purchase of more shares in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will not trigger a costly tender offer.

Shares of the investment firm climbed as high as P2.75 before paring gains to P2.70, up 5.88%, at 0208 GMT to recover some of its losses from four straight days of declines.

MPIC said in a statement on Thursday its deal to buy a 6.7% stake in Meralco would not trigger a tender offer, unlike what a minority shareholder claimed earlier this week.

MPIC, a unit of Hong Kong's First Pacific, has until the end of March 2010 to exercise a call option covering its purchase of more Meralco shares.

"If it decides to exercise the call option, MPIC will not have an obligation and does not intend to conduct a tender offer to the other shareholders of Meralco," the company's statement said.

Meralco was down 2.84% to P205 in early trade while the main index was largely flat.