Australia's Macquarie to buy planes from lessor AWAS for $4 bln

* Deal will boost annuities-style earnings

* Macquarie to raise $390 mln to fund the capital part of deal

* Macquarie has been in the plane business since 2006 (Recasts, adds share information and industry background)

SYDNEY, March 4 (Reuters) - Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd will buy 90 aircraft from Dublin-based lessor AWAS Aviation Capital Ltd for $4 billion, building its presence in the Asian plane leasing sector and boosting an income stream that is more predictable than those from financial markets.

The country's top investment bank said on Wednesday that the new planes, mostly Airbus A320-200s and Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) 737-800s leased to 40 different airlines, will nearly double its existing portfolio to 220 aircraft.

Asia is the world's fastest-growing aviation market and lessors have been drawn to the sector's strong returns. For Macquarie, the investment represents an opportunity to boost its annuities-style earnings as a hedge against volatile equities and commodities markets.

Macquarie, which has been in the plane business since 2006, also said it would raise A$500 million ($390 million) in an institutional bookbuild to fund the capital component of the deal.

The bank said it would wrap up the AWAS deal over the next year, after which it would generate annual net profit of about A$115 million.

Macquarie clinched the AWAS portfolio ahead of Japanese firms Orix Corp and SMBC Aviation Capital, owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, as well as Bohai Leasing Co Ltd and Hong Kong Aviation Capital, which is owned by China's HNA (Shanghai: 600221.SS - news) Group.

Asian tycoon Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd said in August that it was considering the acquisition before agreeing to buy stakes worth $2 billion in aircraft from other lessors.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) and Deutsche Bank (LSE: 0H7D.L - news) were financial advisors to AWAS which is owned by British private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Terra Firma said in a statement it plans to keep expanding its fleet, which now has more than 200 modern aircraft, as it looks toward exiting the business it bought in 2006.

Macquarie shares were in a trading halt while it carries out the capital raising. They hit a 7-year high on Tuesday.

($1 = 1.2799 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Byron Kaye and Swati Pandey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)