About
Richard specialises in structured products and derivatives transactions, usually with a cross-border focus.
He acts for financial institutions and end-users, as well as investment managers and sovereign entities. He has a wide experience of complex strategic equity transactions, in a variety of formats including derivatives and loans. Clients also call on Richard’s extensive knowledge of securities financing (both cash and synthetic) to assist on a wide range of prime brokerage, stock-lending and repo matters. Richard has also been involved with structuring hedging solutions for a wide variety of financings, including securitisations, leveraged buyouts and project/infra financings.
Additional Information
- Advising UBS on a range of aspects of its merger with Credit Suisse related to derivatives and a range of other trading agreements.
- Advising HSBC and Barclays as lenders to Global City Theatres on the £470m margin lending transaction which allowed GCT to subscribe for Cineworld's £1.7bn rights issue, and the subsequent Covid-era restructuring of that margin loan.
- Advising Naturgy on its EUR1.4bn free float liquidity transaction, using a total return swap with respect to treasury shares to improve liquidity in its shares.
- Advising both banks, sponsors and corporates on a range of other confidential strategic equity transactions referencing listed shares, including margin loans, collars, put/call options and spreads, forwards (including prepaid and variable forwards), total return swaps and structured share buybacks.
- Advising a major international bank on a series of pre-IPO margin loans to the founder of a significant global FIG business.
- Advising a major international bank on all aspects of its cash and synthetic prime brokerage business.
- Advising a major international bank on the structuring of all aspects of its agency pledge stock-lending business.
- Advising a FTSE 100 listed company on its employee share option scheme hedging programme, facing a range of bank counterparties.
- Advising a major US bank on the syndication of its margin financing book, using both funded and unfunded structures to achieve regulatory capital efficiencies.
- Advising the Nestlé group on all aspects of its hedging arrangements (including for commodities and pension funds), including the worldwide reorganisation of its hedging book to use a centralised treasury entity, and the impact of EMIR and Dodd-Frank.
- Advising on upwards of 50 deal contingent hedging transactions (both FX and rates) over the last decade, including with respect to public bids and in both acquisition and sale scenarios.
'Richard Hart stands out in his ability to look at the commercial requirements of his clients - finding solutions / ideas to reflect those in the contracts, in an effective / simple way.'
— Legal 500 2026
Richard Hart
Partner
London Office
100 Bishopsgate
London EC2P 2SR