Affinity Equity Partners, a private equity firm set up by former UBS bankers nearly three years ago, has raised Asia's biggest buyout fund in the latest sign of investors' growing appetite for the region.

The buyout firm closed a $2.8bn (€2.2bn) Asia-Pacific fund last month, according to industry sources, topping the near-$2bn raised by CVC Asia Pacific, the joint venture between CVC Capital Partners and Citigroup, in May 2005.