Shares of Samsung BioLogics, a biopharmaceutical unit of Samsung Group, made a strong market debut on Thursday trading above its initial public offering price.

Samsung BioLogics was changing hands at 136,500 won ($118) as of 9:20 a.m., above the IPO price of 136,000 won. Its market capitalization was some 9.03 trillion won.

Right after the opening bell, the company slipped as investors went for immediate profit, but pared earlier losses to make upturn.

With the IPO, Samsung BioLogics, which makes copies of drugs, raised up to 2.25 trillion won, marking the largest since Samsung Life Insurance Co.'s 4.89 trillion won in 2010.

Investors have shown keen interest in Samsung BioLogics as the country's leading conglomerate has been realigning its business portfolio to find new revenue sources. In particular, Samsung's heir apparent Lee Jae-yong has pointed out that the biosimilar business is one of the group's key businesses in the future.

Samsung BioLogics is 52.1 percent owned by Samsung Group's de facto holding company Samsung C&T Corp. and 47.8 percent controlled by Samsung Electronics Co., a global tech giant. 

Samsung BioLogics owns 91.2 percent of Samsung Bioepis Co., which is rumored to make a market debut in the US next year.

Samsung BioLogics is investing $730 million in its third plant with a bioreactor capacity of 180,000 liters. Once the third plant is operational in 2018, Samsung BioLogics is expected to have the world's largest capacity for a biologics contract manufacturing organization, with a total production capacity of 362,000 liters. (Yonhap)