Toshiba expected to report 20 bln yen loss-Nikkei

NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is expected to report a consolidated operating loss of about 20 billion yen ($185 million) for the April-June quarter due to a weak market for flash memory chips, the Nikkei business daily reported on its website on Wednesday.

In the same quarter last year, the world's No. 2 maker of NAND flash memory reported a profit of 21.18 billion yen.

Overall sales for its fiscal first quarter are believed to have come in at about 1.66 trillion yen, which would be little changed from a year earlier, the Nikkei said.

Toshiba said this week it planned to sell a majority stake in its real estate unit to Nomura Real Estate (3231.T: Quote, Profile, Research) for 80 billion yen, a move analysts said was aimed at helping to offset the downturn in its semiconductor business.

Toshiba is under pressure after losses on the PlayStation 3 microchip production facilities it bought earlier this year from Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and from steep price declines for NAND flash memory chips, which are used to store data on devices such as mobile phones and portable music players. (Reporting by Ted Kerr; Editing by Braden Reddall)