AXA Private Equity, the French buyout firm, has agreed to buy a $1.9bn (€1.4bn) portfolio of fund interests from Bank of America, the biggest secondaries deal in more than two years and one that could kick off a long-expected surge in second-hand private equity transactions.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed price, is part of a push by AXA into secondaries, which involve the sale of an investor's interests in a private equity fund. Earlier this week, the firm bought private equity assets worth €534m ($718m) from French bank Natixis.