Sainsbury’s ill-starred ownership of the Argos retail business looks likely to end as the supermarket negotiates a sale to the Chinese retailer JD.com. No agreement has yet been reached but Sainsbury’s confirmed it was in discussions to hive off Argos, the general merchandise arm it bought for more than £1bn less than a decade ago. Sainsbury’s said a sale to JD.com would speed up the transformation of Argos, whose business has gone increasingly online and within larger Sainsbury’s branches. JD.com (unrelated to JD Sports) is one of China’s biggest retailers…