(Adds detail on Rocca bid, impact on Veolia, other bidders)
MARSEILLE, France Nov 20 The Marseille commercial court on Friday selected Corsican transport entrepreneur Patrick Rocca as preferred bidder for France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM.
The ruling clears the way for SNCM majority shareholder Transdev, jointly owned by water and waste group Veolia and French state bank CDC, to sell SNCM.
The company has been under court protection since late 2014, when it failed to repay a loan to Transdev, which owns 66 percent of SNCM.
An SNCM sale would allow Veolia and CDC to unwind their Transdev 50-50 joint venture.
Veolia wants to get out of the transport business by selling part of its stake to CDC, which has agreed to buy out Veolia on condition that SNCM is sold first.
Rocca's offer specifies he will keep 873 of the some 1,500 full-time jobs at SNCM, leave SNCM's current management in place and proposes to offer staff a 10 percent stake in SNCM.
The European Union in 2013 ordered SNCM to repay 440 million euros worth of illegal state aid but the takeover and restart of SNCM's operations under new ownership will allow the EU's legal claim to expire.
The three other groups submitted an SNCM bid to the court: Mexico's Baja Ferries, Corsican consortium Corsica Maritima and a group including Greek maritime transport group Arista.
SNCM unions said they plan to strike on Saturday. (Reporting by Jean-François Rosnoblet; writing by Geert De Clercq; editing by Laurence Frost and Jason Neely)
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