In order to pick up stake in foreign mining assets, Coal India (CIL) decided to rope in additional merchant bankers.

Currently, RBS, Bank of Canada and BofA-Merrill Lynch along with its Indian arm DSP Merrill Lynch are the merchant bankers for CIL.

The state-run miner invited expressions of interest from merchant bankers on possible targets, besides extending the contract of existing merchant bankers.

A few merchant bankers wanted to be part of the team...so the company invited an expression of interest, a CIL official is quoted as saying by a media.

The company seeks application from merchant bankers who completed two merger or acquisition deals worth $500 million successfully in the mining sector in the last three years.

CIL is said to be intensifying efforts to secure coal assets abroad in order to overcome the shortage of the fuel in the country.

In order to conduct due-diligence on the proposals that CIL received, it extended the contract period of its existing merchant bankers and decided to induct a few new.