Investment firms are big business and they can be great for your business too. The basic definition of an investment firm, (from thesaurus) is – a financial institution that sells shares to individuals and invests in securities issued by other companies. Within that definition there are smaller sub categories. We will take a look at a few of these.
Private equity firms do not trade publicly on the stock exchange. Within this group there are around 6 sub-categories again. One example is leveraged buyout where the private equity firm buys out most or all of an existing company. At the other end of the scale are venture capital firms. These firms or types of investment are usually involved in new companies. Often venture capitalists will bring technical and managerial skills into the new company along with capital. Finding a good venture capital firm can be very valuable for an emerging company.
A hedge fund investment company usually uses a very small number of investors with a high minimum investment. Hedge fund investments are usually considered to be quite risky, although many people are seeing hedge fund investment as the wave of the future.
Investment management and asset management firms take professional management of assets and securities to ensure meeting goals for the investors. Perhaps the most famous firm of this kind is jp morgan investment.
If you are looking around at investment firms these are the top ten investment banking firms as listed by the New York Times:
1. Golden Sachs &Co
2. J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc
3. Citigroup
4. UBS
5. Morgan Stanley
6. Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
7. Credit Suisse
8. Deutsche Bank
9. Barclays Capital
10. Lazard
There is a huge amount of information available online to increase your understanding of different kinds of investment firms, how they operate and what you can gain from them. As with any kind of investment it is a good idea to look around and see what is on offer.
