HONG KONG – Shenyang biotech company 3SBio Inc. rose 2.7 percent on its first day of trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

3SBio (HK:1530), which delisted from Nasdaq in 2013 in a privatization deal that valued the company at $370 million, issued 233 million shares in Hong Kong and priced them at HK$9.1 (US$1.17). The shares started trading Thursday, opening at HK$9.32 and peaking at HK$9.82 before closing at HK$9.35.

"The company priced [the IPO] a little bit too high," said Ocean Pan, an analyst at GF Holdings in Hong Kong. "Even if it did go up 2.7 percent, that includes handling fees."

Pan suggested the rise is not particularly impressive for a Hong Kong issue.

The last big biotech company to go public was Luye Pharma (HK:2186), which started trading in Hong Kong on July 14, 2014. Luye's shares rose 13.2 percent to HK$5.92 on their first day of trading. They are currently trading at HK$8.10, up 1.12 percent on June 11 but down from 52-week highs of HK$11.54.

Like 3SBio, Luye was a public company that privatized before issuing a Hong Kong IPO. Unlike 3SBio, Luye was listed in Singapore, where the stock failed to gather much investor interest.

3SBio focuses on the development and manufacture of mammalian cell biopharmaceuticals. Its main products include TPIAO, a recombinant human thrombopoietin to treat some types of thrombocytopenia, a platelet deficiency; and EPIAO, an injectable recombinant human erythropoietin, a natural growth factor that regulates red blood cell production and is used on anemia patients. Those two products account for more than 90 percent of the company's sales.