(Yicai Global) Dec. 20 -- China's commercial real estate heavyweight Dalian Wanda Group will conduct large-scale capital cooperation with electric appliance retail giant Suning Commerce Group Co. [SHE:002024] next year, said Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda. The move aims to initiate what Suning called the "reform of retail mode" with the participation of real estate enterprises.

Suning's Chairman Zhang Jindong, Wanda's Chairman Wang Jianlin, Sunac China Holdings Limited's [HK: 1918] Chairman Sun Hongbin and some other entrepreneurs attended a partnership signing ceremony yesterday. Suning will start a grand commercial development strategy and join several other real estate enterprises to promote the reform of retail mode, tech.sina.com.cn reported, quoting company executives.

As Suning has expanded its retail businesses from electric appliances to various consumption areas, Wanda Group's core business Wanda Plaza will support Suning to open more stores in its shopping malls across China and will regard Suning as the core store to create customized business center, said Wang Jianlin at the ceremony.

Suning's grand development strategy aims to open 5,000 new stores next year, increase the total number of its stores to 20,000 by 2020, and expand the total area of its business centers to 20 million square meters, said its chairman Zhang Jindong.

Wanda and Suning reached their first cooperation deal in 2015, introducing more Suning stores to Wanda Plaza shopping malls. The number of their first batch of cooperation projects reached 40 at that time.

Last month, Suning also announced it will take part in the expansion of China Evergrande Group [HK:3333], another real estate giant, and invest CNY20 billion (USD3.03 billion) to acquire 4.7 percent shares of Hengda Real Estate, a subsidiary of Evergrande. Both companies will cooperate in commercial property development, infrastructure supply chain, financial services, smart home devices and property sales.