(Bloomberg) -- Guoquan Food (Shanghai) Co., a hotpot and barbecue ingredient supermarket chain, has filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

The company, commonly known by its brand Guoquan Shihui, has hired Huatai Securities Co. and China International Capital Corp. as joint sponsors for the proposed listing, according to a preliminary prospectus filed on Monday. The document, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report, didn’t have any details on the offering. Guoquan is considering raising $300 million to $500 million in the share sale, people familiar with the matter have said.

Guoquan opened its first supermarket in Henan province in 2017 and has since expanded rapidly through a franchise system, according to its website. It has also branched out to sell fresh fruits and packaged food. The firm had 9,221 stores across China as of the end of December, its prospectus shows.

The company saw explosive growth during the Covid pandemic as people preferred to dine at home. Its number of stores surged to 7,000 by July 2021 from 1,500 in November 2019, before the outbreak. Guoquan conducted several rounds of fundraising and was valued at about $2 billion in a series D round in March 2021. It counts Maotai Jianxin (Guizhou) Investment Fund among its investors.

Hotpot is a communal dish in which diners dip raw ingredients like meat and vegetables into boiling and simmering flavorful broth in a pot. Haidilao International Holding Ltd. and Xiabuxiabu Catering Management China Holdings Co. are among the hotpot restaurant chains listed in Hong Kong.

--With assistance from Daniela Wei.

(Updates with preliminary prospectus throughout.)

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