Yannis Manuelides

Partner

London

Yannis is a London-based finance partner. He has recently been mandated to head Allen & Overy’s Sovereigns and International Institutions practice. Yannis has over 25 years’ experience in banking and finance transactions including project, corporate and leveraged finance, debt restructurings, securitisations and capital market transactions.

Yannis led the legal team which acted for the Steering Committee of Private Creditors of Greece on the EUR206bn debt restructuring of the Hellenic Republic (PSI). Prior to the PSI he helped the Hellenic Republic with the audit of its debt liabilities and also assisted in the Hellenic Republic's discussions with the Troika on the establishments of the Privatisations Fund and related policy.

Finally he worked on a number of ancillary transactions required to be put in place by number of different EU countries and European institutions as a precondition for rescue packages being made available to Greece.

Yannis is currently acting for sovereigns reviewing their overall debt arrangements and for clients considering specific aspects of proposals for a new Eurozone sovereign debt architecture.

Over the years Yannis has acted in a number of structured financings for supranationals and Eurozone sovereigns.

Yannis is a member of an ad hoc working group on GDP-linked bonds comprised of market participants and economists from the Bank of England to design market appropriate GDP linked bonds for sovereigns.

Yannis is a contributor to the current debates on sovereign and bank debt through advice, membership of special committees, lectures and thought-papers. He is also a member of the Sovereign Debt Committee of the International Law Association, of the Sovereign Debt working group of the Financial Markets Law Committee and of the IIF’s sovereign debt working group.

Yannis' publications on sovereign debt include:

‘Using the Local Law Advantage in Today’s Eurozone’, SSRN, June 201
'A term sheet for GDP linked bonds', in Sovereign GDP Linked Bond: Rationale and Design, 2018, co-authored with Peter Crossan and edited by Robert Shiller, Jonathan Ostry and James Benford.
'Restructuring of Greek Sovereign Debt' Global Restructuring Review, March 2017
'GDP linked bonds: a commentary on a termsheet', Capital Market Law Journal, Volume.12, Issue 2, April 2017, Pages 125–140
'English law and Jurisdiction Post Brexit', in The Changing Geography of Finance and Regulation in Europe, 2017, edited by Franklin Allen, Elena Carletti, Joanna Gray and Mitu Gulati, European University Institute
'Debtor-creditor engagement in sovereign restructurings', Capital Markets Law Journal, Volume 13, Issue 3, July 2018, Pages 427–451

Expertise

Practices

Office

London

Allen & Overy LLP
One Bishops Square
London
E1 6AD

View office →

Qualifications

Professional

Admitted as solicitor, England and Wales, 1991

Admitted as avocat, France, 1994

Academic

BA, Philosophy, Princeton University, 1980

MA, Philosophy, The University of Chicago, 1983

BA, Law, University of Cambridge, 1985

News & insights

Publications: 27 JUNE 2019

Using the local law advantage in today’s Eurozone

Partner Yannis Manuelides sets out the difficulties that could arise should a member of the Eurozone ever need to restructure its sovereign debt. This paper considers the use of domestic law to overcome continuing weaknesses of the current European architecture and considers the limits of domestic law to change retroactively existing property rights.

Publications: 16 MARCH 2018

GDP-linked bonds: one of the greatest innovations in sovereign debt in modern times?

A team from Allen & Overy, led by partner Yannis Manuelides and senior associate Peter Crossan, has been involved in an exciting initiative to develop a model set of terms and conditions, or “term sheet”, for GDP-linked sovereign bonds.

Publications: 20 FEBRUARY 2015

Sovereign debt and eurozone developments

The daily developments in the eurozone present significant challenges to senior management and legal teams. The current focus is, of course, on events in Greece and in particular the fraught negotiations between the new Greek government and the Eurogroup in relation to the Greek bailout. We are monitoring developments closely and addressing the legal impact of events for our clients.

Publications: 20 JANUARY 2020

Brexit Podcast: The Brexit transition period - Business as usual for mainstream debt capital issuance for now

Unlike our previous Brexit podcast which focused on points relevant to a no-deal exit, this podcast covers the impact of the UK leaving the EU on 31 January with a deal and a transition period.