The company has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley as joint sponsors for the IPO, added IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication.

Dali Foods is controlled by the family of its Chairman Xu Shihui, with private equity firm CDH Investments holding a 3 percent stake, according to the company's IPO prospectus.

Dali Foods didn't immediately respond to phone calls requesting comments on the IPO.

(Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR; Additional reporting by Wiki Su; Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)