Swedish independent Magnusson is set to open an office in Helsinki next year as part of its strategy to expand its presence in the Baltic region.

The office will open on 1 February 2011 and is expected to house around 10-12 lawyers, including five partners still to be confirmed.

The launch will give the firm its eighth office, adding to existing bases in Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Minsk, Moscow, Stockholm, Warsaw and Wroclaw. The firm launched its second Swedish office in Gothenburg in October this year, just one year after the opening of its Belarusian outfit in Minsk in association with local firm BusinessConsult in October 2009.

Magnusson senior partner Per Magnusson said: "It is our strategy to cover the whole of the Baltic Sea region, and this is our next step in achieving that.

"We've seen an increasing number of clients asking us to open in Helsinki and we decided that now was the right time to respond to it. We will be offering a full service, but initially the office will focus on banking and finance, M&A and IT."

Magnusson emerged as one of the few Swedish firms to buck the trend of declining revenues in the Nordic region last year, seeing turnover increase by nearly 6% from SEK100.88m (£9.1m) in 2008 to SEK106.7m (£9.7m) in 2009.

The firm estimated profits per equity partner for the year to be SEK11.6m (£1.1m).