Alibaba to become 2nd largest shareholder of Suning

Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce company, and Chinese home appliance retailer Suning have signed a big-money deal to work together on online and high-street sales.

Alibaba will invest about 28.3 billion yuan (4.63 billion U.S. dollars) in Suning to become its second-largest shareholder, while Suning will buy no less than 27.8 million new shares of Alibaba for 14 billion yuan, Alibaba said in a posting on microblogging service Weibo.com on Monday.

"Both sides will raise overall efficiency by linking online and offline businesses to provide better commercial services to Chinese and overseas customers," Alibaba said, without specifying a time scheme.

Suning was established in eastern China's Jiangsu Province in 1990 and was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2004.

Trading of Suning's shares was suspended a week ago as it planned this round of non-public offering. Trading will resume on Tuesday, the company said in a statement filed to the Shenzhen bourse.