Richard has a wide-ranging financing practice covering bank lending, debt capital markets, securitisations, structured finance, project finance, asset-backed lending and derivatives. He has acted for a number of high profile clients including both listed and private companies, banks and other financial institutions, pension funds, private equity firms and various governments.
Richard has experience across a wide number of industries, including the banking, consumer credit and wider financial sector, insurance, leisure and hospitality and energy and natural resources.
Recent highlights include advising:
- NewDay Cards Ltd on the establishment, amendment and refinancing of over two dozen private securitisation facilities and public securitisation issuances, covering (variously) credit cards, store cards, instalment credit and unsecured personal loans, as well as the associated acquisition and disposal of certain receivables portfolios funded by such structures. These structures have included traditional term notes, variable funding notes and interest rate and cross-currency swaps.
- Financiera El Corte Inglés (a joint venture between El Corte Inglés and Santander) on the establishment of a securitisation of store card and point-of-sale receivables originated in Spain.
- International Personal Finance plc on its successful exchange offers of outstanding unsecured and guaranteed notes and parallel inter-conditional consent solicitations and on the subsequent update of its EMTN programme, which is now approved by both the UK’s Financial Services Authority and Ireland’s Central Bank, such that notes issued under the programme can be listed on either the London Stock Exchange or an EEA exchange.
- Watches of Switzerland Group on its entry into a new £45m facilities agreement guaranteed under the UK Government’s Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
- A group of financial institutions as lenders to a leading global logistics group in connection with its acquisition by a consortium of private equity funds. The financing included term, revolving and bank guarantee facilities, as well as the ability for the borrower to increase those facilities or obtain new facilities in certain circumstances, with a multi-jurisdictional guarantee and security package.
- A private credit fund as lender to a tech company engaged in the provision of various consumer-focused financial services. The lending was structured as an issue of guaranteed and secured notes, which were listed on The International Stock Exchange.
Richard is ranked in Legal 500, 2021 for Bank Lending: Investment Grade Debt and Syndicated Loans; Securitisation; and Derivatives and Structured Products, which describes him as “absolutely excellent”.