Charter Oak Equity and its predecessor funds have invested in private equity since 1992. These little acorns might grow into mighty oaks too! Charter Oak Private Equity targets small and middle-market companies. Its investment vehicles, Charter Oak Capital Partners, Charter Oak Equity, and Charter Oak International Partners, invest in the health care, chemicals, consumer products, and industrial manufacturing industries. Investments include Daisy Manufacturing (the air rifle maker) and Aylward Enterprises (pharmaceuticals packaging). The company's Revere Industries holds several of its industrial manufacturing companies. Charter Oak Partners still exists as a hedge fund manager focused on long/short equity.

KBC Ancora SCA is a Belgium-based company that holds approximately 23% of the shares in the listed KBC Group and, together with Cera SCRL, Maatschappij voor Roerend Bezit van de Boerenbond SCRL (MRBB) and other permanent shareholders, ensures the shareholder stability and continuity of KBC Group. KBC Group is a Belgian company that specializes in retail banking, insurance and asset management activities, as well as in the provision of services to businesses, principally in Belgium and Central and Eastern Europe. KBC Group is also active in private banking and services to businesses in other countries in Europe.

JMP Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an investment banking, asset management, and corporate credit management company in the United States. JMP Group Inc. provides various investment banking products and services, such as capital raising, mergers and acquisitions transaction, and other strategic advisory services to corporate clients. JMP Group Inc. also offers sales and trading, and related brokerage services to institutional investors; and proprietary equity research in six industries, including business services, consumer, financial services, healthcare, real estate, and technology industries. In addition, JMP Group Inc. provides asset management products and services to institutional investors, high net-worth individuals; and involves in the management of collateralized loan obligations. JMP Group Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California with additional offices in New York, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Auriga Partners was founded in May, 1998 and is based at Paris, France. Auriga Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early stage companies. It prefers to invest in the information technology, industrial technology, and life sciences sectors. The firm primarily invests in the European Union, with a minor focus on North America, France, and Israel. It typically invests between €0.5 million ($0.74 million) and €8 million ($11.87 million) in its portfolio companies. For investments outside France, the firm participates in the funding along with its extensive global network of local venture capitalists.

ASX Limited (ASX) was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and SFE (Sydney Futures Exchange) Corporation. As of June 30, 2009, the ASXL’s principal activities include securities exchange and ancillary services; derivatives exchange and ancillary services; central counterparty clearing services, and registry, settlement and delivery versus payment clearing of financial products. ASX functions as a market operator, supervisor, clearing house and payments system facilitator. The diverse domestic and international customer base of ASX includes issuers (such as corporations and trusts) of a variety of listed securities, investment and trading banks, fund managers, hedge funds, commodity trading advisers, proprietary and retail traders, and retail investors.

Quest Capital seeks investments in first mortgage loans secured by single-family residences, apartments, condominiums, social housing, and nursing and retirement facilities in Canada. Quest Capital Corp. previously was an asset-based lender to companies in the mining and oil and gas industries, but sold those operations in 2007 and converted to a mortgage investment company. Quest Capital Corp., however, halted new loan production the following year as it waited out the rough economy. Some vestiges of Quest Capital's former incarnation remain in its much smaller commercial real estate and natural resource lending activities.

Frontiers Capital provides venture capital and consulting services to European technology companies. They like to invest in companies representing three distinct business segments: communications hardware (routers, terminals, semiconductors), communications software (operations support systems), and enterprise software (middleware, supply chain management, and customer relationship management systems). The venture capital firm has about E130 million in three funds: Frontiers Capital I, II, and III. Frontiers Capital merged with nCoTec Ventures in 2003.

Founded in 1987, Walden International Investment Group has more than $1.9 billion under management. Walden International Investment Group seeks utopia in global venture capital. The firm focuses on financing early stage companies in the communications, electronics, software and IT services, emerging technologies, and semiconductor industries. Portfolio investments include broadband communications equipment provider EndWave, software developer InQuira, supply chain services provider Velosel, and about 150 more. Walden International Investment Group has offices around the globe and is affiliated with WaldenVC, a venture-capital firm based in San Francisco focused on digital media, e-commerce, and technology-enabled services.

IG Group Holdings plc was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. IG Group Holdings plc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a financial spread betting company. The company operates through two segments, Financial and Sport. The Financial segment offers contracts for difference (CFD), spread bets, and exchange traded futures on equities, equity indices, precious and base metals, soft commodities, exchange rates, interest rates, and other financial markets; and exchange traded options, CFDs, and spread bets on options on certain financial markets. This segment also provides financial binaries, including exchange traded and over the counter binary options, and fixed odds bets, as well as operates North American Derivatives Exchange, a CFTC regulated futures and options exchange. The Sport segment provides spread bets and fixed odds bets on sporting and other events, as well as operates an online casino. IG Group Holdings offers its products and services to retail customers, market professionals, and corporate entities in Europe, the Asia Pacific, and rest of the world.

Oppenheimer Holdings specializes in wealth management, asset management, trust, and investment banking services for institutional and wealthy individual clients. (Private-client services -- about $62 billion in assets under management -- make up the bulk of sales.) Offerings include brokerage, annuities, and estate planning. Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. asset management group -- about $17 billion in assets under management -- covers the bases from research to alternative investments. Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. capital markets unit provides equities and debt market products and services. The formerly Toronto-based Canadian company rechartered as a US company in 2009, moving its headquarters to New York.

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