Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has cemented its role as top-tier adviser to Cinven and CVC Capital Partners after advising the private equity giants on the merger of their wholly-owned paper packaging company Kappa with rival Jefferson Smurfit Group (JSG), creating a €7.6bn (£5.1bn) company.

The merger, which creates Europe’s biggest paper packaging firm, was announced last week (13 September) after talks began in May.