* High court allows PCCW buyout; SFC appeals
* Allegations versus Fortis unsubstantiated - judge
* SFC appeal to be heard on April 16
* PCRD says deal can still be completed by April 23
(Adds SFC, Fortis comments, details)
By Joanne Chiu and Nerilyn Tenorio
HONG KONG, April 6 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong court on Monday said it would allow a $2.2 billion plan to take tycoon Richard Li's PCCW private, although the city's securities watchdog quickly appealed in a case over alleged vote buying.
Li has fallen short in previous attempts to sell PCCW.
He is now looking to take the firm private through his Pacific Century Regional Developments (PCRD) holding company and Beijing-controlled China Unicom, which are the two biggest shareholders of PCCW, in a deal that has been beset by accusations of vote-buying and angry minority shareholders.
After Monday's High Court ruling, two Court of Appeal judges set an April 16 date to hear the appeal by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
A lawyer for PCRD said the date for the appeal was too late and would result in killing the deal, which is set to be completed by April 23. A PCRD spokesman later said the deal could still be completed even if a court hearing took place at that late date.
"The 16th of April is a workable timetable," the PCRD spokesman said late on Monday.
The SFC said it was not seeking to block the deal, and only wanted to clarify whether the share splitting that led to the majority vote supporting the proposed deal was legitimate.
"That issue about splitting of the votes in order to achieve a majority is something we think, in our view, is wrong," the SFC's Chief Executive, Martin Wheatley, told a news conference after the High Court decision.
The privatisation offer from Li, the younger son of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, was made to minority shareholders at HK$4.20 a share last November. The offer was sweetened to HK$4.50 a share in December.
PCCW shares last traded at HK$3.98 before being suspended on April 1. The company has a market capitalisation of about HK$27 billion ($3.48 billion).
FORTIS CLEARED
The SFC said a Fortis Insurance Co (Asia) regional director, Inneo Lam, a former co-worker of PCRD Vice Chairman Francis Yuen, bought 500,000 PCCW shares in January and gave them to about 500 agents as a bonus to gain support for the scheme.
High court judge Susan Kwan said the votes cast in favour of the deal in February were legitimate, noting the practice known as "share-splitting" was not prohibited in Hong Kong.
"I have concluded that the statutory majority who voted for the scheme were acting in bona fide (good faith) and were not coercing the minority in order to promote an interest adverse to those of the class whom they represented," Kwan's verdict said.
Kwan also said there was not enough evidence to prove a link between Yuen and the Fortis manager. In her ruling Monday, she called the allegations "merely suspicions, wholly unsubstantiated by evidence."
Fortis Insurance Company (Asia) Ltd (FICA), owned by Belgium's Fortis, said it was not involved with the purchase and distribution of PCCW shares to its agents or any other parties and Fortis agents and their supervisors were not employees of the company.
"The relationship between FICA and its agents is 'principal/agent'," said Stuart Fraser, chief executive of FICA.
Analysts said the High Court's decision may cast doubt over corporate governance in Hong Kong.
"Now it will be an open season for the privatisation of any company that anyone wishes to take private, and who's going to protect the minority shareholders?" said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities.
The SFC began probing alleged improper transfers of PCCW shares in February after shareholder activist David Webb said he had received an anonymous email alleging PCCW shares were offered to insurance agents in exchange for supporting the buyout offer. (Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Tony Munroe and Andrew Macdonald)