Scots entrepreneur angus MacDonald is poised to tighten his grip on the UK s only quoted biomass-to-energy company Helius Energy following the completion last week of a ?1 million debt-and-equity deal that left him in command of 24% of the company. MacDonald is a non-executive director of aim-listed Helius and chairman of Specialist Waste Recycling, which processes waste for firms including arnold Clark, Dobbies garden centres and Baa Edinburgh. He is also the owner of 1500 hectares of forest in southwest Scotland, a vast potential source of raw material for the emerging biomass sector. MacDonald increased his holding in Helius from 19.12% to 24.12% following the London-based firm s issue of 4,360,674 new shares at 16p each, less than half the price of most analysts valuations. a recent report by Will Wallis of Numis Securities noted that current valuations of Helius imply almost no value in Helius s promising pipeline of biomass plants, noting that the shares look fundamentally very undervalued . Last week s cash injection coincided with the publication of the Westminster Government s electricity market reform white paper, seen by industry observers as being good for biomass . MacDonald said: There is clearly a disconnect between the share price and what the brokers think [Helius s] shares are worth. He said it was down to the fact that aim is very illiquid right now . Until recently, biomass projects were not financially viable because of the lack of grandfathering [the guaranteeing of prices granted to rival renewable technologies], the state of financial markets, and the price of electricity being too low. a lot of these things are coming right now. The energy market review was good for biomass which, unlike wind, has the constancy required for baseload electricity. MacDonald supplemented his own share purchase, which raised ?700,000 for the company, with an unsecured loan of ?302,300, giving the company an extra ?1m of breathing space while its in-development projects move towards production and earn-out. I have now got 25% and I would be delighted to increase that holding, MacDonald told the Sunday Herald. It is not my plan to take over the company, but as a plc we have some good funding options, which we are considering as part of the strategic review to be concluded by Christmas. Other options could include soliciting further investment from high net-worth individuals known to MacDonald from previous business ventures, which include his 11 years as publisher of eFinancial Group, sold for ?79m in 2007. Helius founded by current chairman John Seed is building a 7.2MW biomass plant in Rothes, Morayshire, with a consortium of leading whisky d