  We present spectroscopic observations of three Ultra Luminous X-ray sources
(ULX's). Two of them are very close to the active galaxy NGC 720 and the other
is near NGC 1073. The two around NGC 720 turn out to be quasars at z=0.964 and
z= 2.216, the one near NGC 1073 seems to be associated to an HII region at the
redshift of NGC 1073. We concentrate our analysis on the two quasars and
analyze them in conjunction with a set of 20 additional X-ray sources close to
nearby galaxies which also fit the criteria of ULX's and which also have been
identified as quasars of medium to high redshift. This sample shows an
unusually large fraction of rare BL Lac type objects. The high redshifts of
these ULX's and their close proximity to their low redshift, supposedly parent
galaxies is a surprising result in the light of standard models. We describe
the main properties of each of these objects and their parent galaxy, and
briefly discuss possible interpretations.
