French superstore chain Carrefour announced Sunday that it is selling an 80 percent stake in its Chinese operations to retailer Suning.com, with Europe's largest retailer looking to leave China after almost 25 years since opening its first store.

In a statement published on Carrefour's website, the firm confirmed that Suning has agreed to a cash purchase that values Carrefour China at 1.4 billion euros (1.59 billion U.S. dollars).

Carrefour will retain its 20 percent stake in the China business, but has agreed a liquidity mechanism that would allow the French firm to sell off its remaining stake to Suning in "liquidity windows" over the next few years.

Since entering the Chinese market in 1995, Carrefour has opened 210 hypermarkets and 24 convenience stores across the country.

Despite establishing itself as one of the biggest foreign supermarket chains in China, Carrefour has seen sales slump in recent years after adapting slowly to China’s surging e-commerce sector.

Net sales worth almost 28.5 billion yuan in 2018 were down 5.9 percent from the year before, with Carrefour China making earnings before deductions of 516 million yuan.

Last year the company announced its global Carrefour 2022 plan, in which it said it would offer voluntary redundancy to almost a quarter of its staff in France, while reducing the size of its hypermarkets and looking to boost efficiency.

The 2022 plan also mentioned a "potential acquisition of a stake" by Tencent and Yonghui, following the establishment of a "strategic partnership" with the former.

However, the deal with Alibaba-backed Suning means any significant takeover by Tencent will now not happen. Tencent and Carrefour partnered up in 2018, establishing "scan and go" payment systems in the French chain's supermarkets in an effort to modernize its services for China's smartphone-savvy shoppers.

Suning, which has more than 8,880 physical stores across some 700 cities, is also China's third largest e-commerce platform. Initially focusing on electronic products, Suning has branched out into other areas including food, setting up its own fresh produce platform.

Shenzhen-listed Suning saw its share price increase by 3.29 percent on Monday, with Citigroup calling Carrefour's sale price a "significant discount."

Other Western supermarket chains have struggled in the Chinese market in recent years. British giant Tesco sold an 80 percent stake in its China venture to China Resources Enterprise in 2015, with all 135 Tesco China stores rebranded as Vanguard.

U.S. chain Walmart has more than 440 stores in China, but saw its sales fall 0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2018. The company has since partnered with JD.com to develop its e-commerce business, with both firms integrating their online and offline supply chains in China.