SINGAPORE - Keppel Land , Singapore's third-largest developer, said on Friday it planned to raise $712.3 million via a rights offer to take advantage of opportunities in the weakened property market.

'The company believes that the current macroeconomic environment will present attractive opportunities in the real estate sector across Asia,' Keppel Land said in a filing to the Singapore stock exchange.

The developer added that it was already in a 'strong financial position to weather the current economic slowdown", with cash balances of $627.3 million and a net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52 as of March 31.

Traders said Keppel Land's fund-raising may hurt the firm's shares but was unlikely to affect the overall Singapore market given the likely boost from gains in US stocks overnight and South Korea's better-than-expected first-quarter GDP numbers.

Keppel Land plans to offer nine rights shares for every 10 existing shares at $1.09 a share, a 42 per cent discount to its last traded price of $1.88.

Oil-rig builder Keppel Corp , Keppel Land's majority shareholder with 53 per cent, will subscribe to its full entitlement of rights shares as well as underwrite 90 per cent of the remaining offer, which is being managed by Merrill Lynch, according to the filing. -- REUTERS