LONDON (Reuters) – British supermarket group Sainsbury’s is in talks regarding a potential sale of its Argos general merchandise business to Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, it said on Saturday.
“No agreement has been reached and there is no certainty at this stage that any transaction will proceed,” Sainsbury’s said in a statement.
It said a deal with JD.com would accelerate Argos’ transformation.
“JD.com would bring world-class retail, technology and logistics expertise and invest to drive Argos’ growth and further transform the customer experience,” Sainsbury’s said.
It said the terms of any possible deal would include commitments from JD.com in relation to Argos for the benefit of customers, workers and partners.
Argos is the UK’s second-largest general merchandise retailer, with the third most visited retail website in the UK and over 1,100 collection points.
Sainsbury’s, Britain’s second largest supermarket group, trailing only Tesco, added that it was committed to delivering the most successful future for Argos, with its current strategy for the business delivering “solid progress”.
The Sainsbury’s group has a market capitalisation of 7 billion pounds ($9.5 billion).
($1 = 0.7377 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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