CAIRO- Shares in Egyptian generic drug maker Rameda Pharmaceutical closed down 4.7% on Wednesday on their first day of trading, but still finished off their session lows.

The shares, which fell by as much 13.1% to 4.05 Egyptian pounds ($0.25) during the session, closed at 4.44 pounds.

Rameda listed 49% of its shares on the Egyptian exchange in two tranches, priced at 4.66 pounds, saying it aimed to use the cash raised to expand its product range and potentially acquire other pharmaceutical companies. 

Rameda, established by Gulf investors in 1994, manufactures and sells a wide range of branded generic pharmaceutical products, exporting to six countries, according to its website.

The group's three factories in Cairo's 6th of October industrial zone house 20 production lines. It marketed 97 products in 2018.

($1 = 16.0600 Egyptian pounds)

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Mahmoud Mourad and Yousef Saba; Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair) ((mahmoud.mourad@thomsonreuters.com))