HANOI - Police will investigate after one of Vietnam's largest state-owned enterprises, shipbuilder Vinashin, ended up on the brink of bankruptcy, media reports said Tuesday.

Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group has debts of at least 80 trillion dong (S$6 billion), local media said.

Last week a Communist Party oversight body said Vinashin's chairman, Pham Thanh Binh, will be disciplined for irresponsibility in the mobilisation, management and use of state capital, leaving the firm nearly bankrupt.

It did not specify the punishment but the Vinashin case has now been transferred to police, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on its English-language website.