China's HNA conglomerate will buy the aircraft leasing business of US-based CIT Group Inc. for $10 billion, the latest acquisition in the privately held Chinese company's foreign buying binge.

HNA -- best known as the parent of Hainan Airlines -- has been on an international buying spree in recent months, part of a wave of Chinese companies turning to investments abroad as the world's second largest economy faces a domestic slowdown.

The deal will see HNA's subsidiary Avolon Holdings add another 910 planes valued at over $43 billion to its fleet, making it the world's third largest aircraft leasing company, Bloomberg News reported.

"This transaction is strategically compelling and will double the scale of Avolon," Avolon's CEO Domhnal Slattery said in a statement issued Thursday.

Following the deal, Avolon, which is based in Ireland and Hong Kong, will have 561 in-service aircraft and an additional 349 orders and commitments, the statement said.

Avolon is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shenzhen-listed Bohai Group, which is, in turn, majority controlled by the HNA Group.

The move is a "step towards our collective goal to become a true global leader in transport finance," Bohai's CEO Chris Jin said, according to the statement.

HNA is a sprawling conglomerate with interests in aviation and tourism.

The company purchased Brazil's third largest airline Azul in August, a deal that followed a July announcement that it had made a successful $1.5 billion offer for Swiss airline catering company gategroup.

In May, the company bought a 13 percent stake in airline Virgin Australia and also took a share of Portuguese national airline TAP.

The Chinese government has encouraged the nation's companies to invest overseas to open up new markets.

Cathay Pacific flies Boeing 747 over Hong Kong one last time
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 8, 2016 - Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific bid farewell to its Boeing 747 fleet Saturday with a final low-altitude flyby over the city's iconic skyline.

The final route harked back to dramatic images of the planes flying low over rooftops of apartment blocks as they used to approach the old airport on the harbour.

Saturday's flight, codenamed CX8747, flew over the city's famous Victoria Harbour and the former Kai Tak Airport, which closed in 1998 and was considered one of the most challenging places to land an aircraft due to its crowded urban site surrounded by steep mountains.

Around 300 airline staff made a donation of HK$747 ($96) to ride on the venerable aircraft, which was first used by Cathay Pacific in 1979, for the last time, the airline said.

Photos of the last flyby, at an altitude of 610 metres (2,000 feet) were posted on the airline's Facebook page, which showed some 747 fans waving goodbye.

"Goodbye and thank you, our dearest Boeing 747," Adonis Lau said on the airline's Facebook.

"Cathay 747s brought me and my family between HK and our stays in US and Canada during my childhood. I'll miss my time on the upper deck," Denise Ho said.

The airline had said the four-engine 747 aircraft played a significant role in growing Hong Kong into an international aviation hub.

It added the Boeing 747 had spent 3.1 million hours in the air, after its last commercial flight from Tokyo to the southern Chinese city on October 1.

The 400 passenger 747 Jumbo Jet was launched in 1970 and dominated international air travel and cargo over the next decades.