TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of Toshiba Corp 6502.T skidded on Thursday, as the company aims to seal a deal worth some $18 billion by next week for the sale of its chip business needed to cover massive losses.

Toshiba shares were down 1.6 percent in early trading at 318 yen after dropping as low as 313.2 yen earlier.

Toshiba has chosen a consortium of Bain Capital and Japanese government investors as the preferred bidder.

The Nikkei reported that the consortium would propose to have Innovation Network Corp of Japan buy 50.1 percent of Toshiba memory’s common stock.