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A set of nitro-activated ruthenium-based Hoveyda-Grubbs type olefin metathesis catalysts bearing sterically modified N-hetero-cyclic carbene (NHC) ligands have been obtained, characterised and studied in a set of model metathesis reactions. It was found that catalysts bearing standard SIMes and SIPr ligands (4a and 4b) gave the best results in metathesis of substrates with more accessible C–C double bonds. At the same time, catalysts bearing engineered naphthyl-substituted NHC ligands (4d–e) exhibited high activity towards formation of tetrasubstituted C–C double bonds, the reaction which was traditionally Achilles' heel of the nitro-activated Hoveyda–Grubbs catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]