In brief

* Labco, a European medical diagnostics network, has announced a new capital structure featuring €258m of equity, €300m in new senior debt with a possible extension of €50m and €120m in mezzanine financing.

The equity includes a €140m investment from new investor 3i, with existing shareholders CIC Finance, TCR Capital and Natixis Investment Partners contributing €60m to the share capital increase. In addition employees and managers will contribute €58m.

Under the Labco model all of the network’s constituent clinical laboratories are managed independently with each being a partner in the larger group.

The €300m to €350m senior debt facilities are being provided by bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers Natixis and CIC. ICG will provide €120m in senior and junior mezzanine debt.

* Hellman & Friedman has mandated Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and RBS to arrange an £80m debt backing its £198m buyout of listed IT company SSP Holdings. UK-based SSP provides IT services to the insurance sector.

The debt supports Hellman & Friedman’s equity contribution of £111.2m and SSP management team’s rollover of a significant portion of their current 27% equity holdings in the business.

* Ad van Geloven, a producer of frozen meal components based in the Netherlands, is to be acquired by Lion Capital with the backing of an €200m loan mandated to Rabobank. AvG owns the Mora food brand, which was acquired from Unilever in 2006. In 2007, AvG generated net sales of over €170m.

Swiss private equity sponsor Capvis Equity Partners has acquired KVT, a unit of German steel group Kloeckner in a €325m deal, supported by domestic Swiss lenders. Zuercher Kantonalbank is believed to be among them.

* French sponsor Astorg has mandated ING as sole mandated lead arranger on its buyout of medical imaging and nightvision products maker Photonis.

The deal is backed by €152.5m of senior debt and €37.5m of mezzanine.

Senior facilities are split between a €47.5m seven-year term loan A paying 275bp over Euribor, a €32.5m eight-year term loan B paying 325bp and a €32.5m eight-year term loan B paying 375bp.

In addition there are a further €40m of undrawn facilities. The €37.5m 10 year mezzanine tranche pays 10.5% and comes with warrants and is non-call two. It has been preplaced with Axa Private Equity Mezzanine.

The deal features a 45% equity contribution and total leverage is 3.3x Ebitda through senior facilities and 4.3x through total debt.