Manulife Asset Management has hired an emerging markets debt portfolio management team in the shape of Roberto Sanchez-Dahl and Paolo Valle, who join the firm as managing directors and senior portfolio managers.

As members of the firm’s fixed income team, Sanchez-Dahl and Valle will manage an emerging markets debt strategy for institutional clients and certain wealth management businesses of Manulife Financial and John Hancock.

Reporting to Christopher Conkey, global chief investment officer, the pair will also support other global debt strategies investing in emerging market debt, the firm said.

Sanchez-Dahl joins from Federated Investment Management Company, where he has served as an emerging markets senior portfolio manager and investment analyst.

Valle was formerly an emerging markets senior portfolio manager at Federated Investment Management Company, where he served as vice president. He spent from 2001 to 2004 as chief investment officer at Ramirez Asset Management in New York City, and has also worked at Merrill Lynch Investment Management in Princeton, NJ.  

Manulife Asset Management has operations in the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines.  

The firm has C$252 billion ($248 billion) in assets under management, as at March 31.