Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) is polling its shareholders about a proposed move by State-owned shipbuilding giant Vinashin Group to transfer the BVH shares it holds to the State Capital Investment Corp (SCIC).

The BVH has set a deadline of December 17 for shareholders to comment on the move, undertaken after a recent decision by Vinashin’s management board to offload 20.4 million BVH shares.

Vinashin is one of the three founding shareholders of BVH, with a 3.56 per cent stake. It acquired the shares, worth a total of VND1.46 trillion (US$90 million), two years ago, at a price of VND72,000 per share.

BVH shares, now listed on the HCM City Stock Exchange, have since fallen to about VND40,000 per share, at which price Vinashin would post a loss of over VND630 billion upon transferring its stake to the SCIC.

Vinashin chairman Pham Thanh Binh said that the group would withdraw its capital from the BVH even though the stake represented one of Vinashin’s largest outside investments and one that helped the shipbuilder maintain stable insurance costs.