By P.R. Venkat

Nasdaq-listed Huazhu Group Ltd. is planning a secondary listing in Hong Kong, joining the list of Chinese firms seeking to tap the home market.

The multibrand hotel group in China that counts Accor SA and Trip.com Group Ltd. as its shareholders has appointed Goldman Sachs and CMB International as joint sponsors for a potential Hong Kong listing, according to a draft prospectus filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.

The draft prospectus didn't mention the timing or the size of the deal.

If successful, Huazhu would add to a series of recent secondary listings in Hong Kong by Chinese companies whose shares are already traded in New York, such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., JD.com Inc. and NetEase Inc.

Earlier this month, Yum China Holdings Inc., the operator of KFC and Pizza Hut in mainland China raised over $2.2 billion via a secondary listing in Hong Kong.

Huazhu operates several upscale hotels including Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts and Grand Mercure.

As of June 30, Huazhu had 6,187 hotels in operation, including 758 leased and owned hotels and 5,429 manachised and franchised hotels, with an aggregate of 599,235 hotel rooms, the prospectus said.

French hospitality company Accor owns 5.23% stake in Huazhu while Trip.com has a 8.83% stake and Invesco Ltd. owns a 12.11% stake.

Hong Kong's IPO market has been active since last year and most of the listings have received warm reception from investors. The market lures many mom-and-pop investors, who often rush to subscribe to offerings before flipping shares for short-term gains.

For the three months ended March, Huazhu revenues fell to $284 million from $2.01 billion in the same period a year earlier.

"Beginning from the first quarter of 2020, we have been negatively impacted by Covid-19. However, we have experienced recovery outperforming the industry since March 2020," the company said in the prospectus.

As of June 30, approximately 96% of legacy Huazhu's hotels had resumed operations with an occupancy rate of approximately 83% in early June 2020, it said. 



  Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com