New Delhi, June 6: Low-cost carrier SpiceJet is likely to offload up to 15 per cent of its stake through a fresh equity offering to either existing or new investors.

Partha Sarthi Basu, chief financial officer of SpiceJet, said the company wanted to raise about Rs 400 crore, and this could be done through an equity issue.

The stake sale would fund expansion plans as well as meet the working capital requirements.

The airline, which has NRI oil tycoon Bhulo Kansagra, the Tatas and Istithmar as major shareholders, has been rumoured to have been wooed by the likes of Anil Ambani, Kingfisher Airlines’ Vijay Mallya and Jet Airways’ Naresh Goel for a stake sale.

Till now these rumours have been denied by the airline.

Kansagra has a 12.9 per cent stake, while the Tatas hold about 6 per cent and Istithmar, a Dubai government- controlled investment firm, has a 13.4 per cent stake in the New Delhi-based company.

Analysts said the airline, which has a fleet size of 17, might be permitted to fly abroad from the next year, which could help shore up its bottomline.

Current rules which stipulate that airlines must have a five-year experience of flying in domestic skies before being allowed on international routes may be relaxed. If the rules are not changed, SpiceJet would be allowed to fly abroad only in 2010.

SpiceJet, like most of India’s other airlines, is financially stressed by record jet fuel prices. The budget airline had said earlier this week that it might scrap some routes.

Taxes and surcharges now account for more than three- fourths of the ticket price of a low-cost airline between major metros, and this has impacted traffic growth.

SpiceJet has a long-term plan to make Calcutta the hub for flights to southeast Asian cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok as well as the southern Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong.