Director loans £1m to Helius

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on 20/09/2012 00:00

A POWER plant developer backed by investors including Stagecoach co-founder Anne Gloag and shipping line heir Alastair Salvesen has secured a £1 million loan from one of its non-executive directors.

Aim-quoted Helius Energy is borrowing the cash from Perthshire-based investor Angus MacDonald, who sold his E-Financial publishing group to Dow Jones in 2007 for £79m.

Helius is building a power plant at Rothes, in Moray, which will turn “draff”, a waste product from the whisky industry, into electricity to power 9,000 homes and an animal feed plant.

The cash will be used as working capital as Helius negotiates with banks to build a biomass power station at Avonmouth.

MacDonald owns 17.1 per cent of the firm, while Salvesen holds a 23 per cent stake and Gloag owns 4.8 per cent.