Beating bigwig merchant bankers like Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and SBI Capital Markets,  Khaitan and co. has been appointed as legal adviser to manage the stake sale in Coal India limited (CIL). They will be managing disinvestment of five per cent in Coal India.

The appointment comes ahead of the crucial meeting next week between Coal India and its five workers unions which have threatened to go on a three-day strike beginning September 23 to protest the proposed stake sale.

According to news reports, finance minister P Chidambaram had tried to assuage the workers unions, saying the disinvestment proceeds from the coal behemoth would be invested in PSU banks. CIL was listed on bourses in 2010 after the government raised Rs 15,199 crore by selling 10 per cent stake in the country's biggest initial public offering. The company has a cash balance of about about Rs 62,000 crore. The government plans to garner Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal by way of disinvestment and CIL's stake sale would be the largest.