A ZTO Express Inc courier rides an electric motorcycle along a road while making a delivery in Shanghai, Feb 10, 2017. (QILAI SHEN / BLOOMBERG)

Express delivery giant ZTO Express Cayman Inc is looking to raise as much as HK$12 billion (US$1.56 billion) in its Hong Kong second listing, joining a growing cohort of US-traded Chinese mainland firms selling shares in the Asian financial hub.

ZTO Express is selling 45 million shares in the offering, it said in a US filing on Tuesday. It has set a maximum price of HK$268 apiece for the portion of the deal being marketed to retail investors, which represents a 10 percent premium to Tuesday’s closing price of US$31.37. Its New York-traded American Depositary Shares have gained 34 percent this year.

ZTO Express is selling 45 million shares in the offering, it said in a US filing, setting a maximum price of HK$268 apiece for the portion of the deal being marketed to retail investors

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The share sale comes hot on the heels of Yum China Holdings Inc, China’s largest restaurant company, raising US$2.2 billion in a Hong Kong second listing. Mainland firms listed in the US are increasingly looking to establish a trading foothold in Hong Kong amid Sino-US tensions. US regulators are threatening to restrict mainalnd firms’ access to American capital markets if they do not allow authorities to review their audits, escalating an issue that has vexed them for over a decade.

The trend is a boon to Hong Kong, which is riding a wave of investor enthusiasm for first-time share sales.

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Almost US$10 billion has been raised from the second listings of Yum China, JD.com Inc and NetEase Inc this year, bringing the total haul from initial share sales to US$22.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The city is set to get a further boost from the mega IPO of Jack Ma’s Ant Group, which could raise about US$30 billion through a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Bloomberg News has reported.

ZTO Express is one of China’s leading express delivery companies, with a 21.5 percent market share, according to its website. Its net income grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier to 1.45 billion yuan (US$214 million) as parcel volume grew thanks to people buying more goods online.

The company plans to price the Hong Kong offering on Sept 22 and start trading on the city’s stock exchange on Sept 29.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is the sole sponsor for the ZTO Express listing, while UBS Group AG, China International Capital Corp and Citigroup Inc are joint bookrunners.

Meanwhile, Chinese online car-sales website Autohome Inc is also planning a second listing in Hong Kong that could raise about US$1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

New York-listed Autohome, which counts Ping An Insurance Group Co as its largest shareholder, is working with advisers on the Hong Kong share sale, the people said. An offering could happen as soon as early next year, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.