Lazard has got its first mandate to advise Munksjö, the Swedish paper manufacturer, boosting the firm's Nordic business which it has been steadily building since the acquisition of the corporate finance business of Brummer & Partners of Sweden in 1998.

Jefferson Smurfit, the Irish paper and packaging group, made an offer for the two thirds of Munksjö it does not already own at the end of January, valuing the Swedish company at Skr3.34bn (€361m).