Enquirer Consulting Group

Reachable Buyer Map

Prepared for Ryan Forecast · Yellow Jersey PR · August 2026
From the outside, this is an adviser-led practice. In financial PR, mandates usually arrive through brokers, nominated advisers and people who already know the team, which reaches whichever part of the quoted market overlaps a firm's own network and is silent about the rest. This map is the rest of the UK quoted market. Where a corporate, financial or investor relations mandate actually sits, who signs inside each segment, and roughly how many companies there are. It describes the market rather than your business, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it.
Companies on the London growth market
The core of the addressable base and the segment where an external adviser is not optional, because the reporting obligations arrive whether or not anyone in house knows how to meet them. The population has been contracting for several years, which changes the sale from finding a company to catching a moment.
Who signs: chief executive, finance director or CFO, company secretary, and the chair on anything contested.
650 to 700
companies admitted to the London growth market
Main Market issuers
Larger, better resourced and almost always already advised, so this is a switch market rather than an open one. The compensation is that an in-house investor relations seat exists to talk to, and that seat is measured on things a consultancy can move.
Who signs: head of investor relations, CFO, director of communications, company secretary.
800 to 900
equity issuers admitted to the London Main Market
The smaller growth market
Small by count and the least contested list on this page. Companies here rarely carry any in-house communications function at all, and they are the least likely to be in the room where mandates get discussed, which is exactly why nobody is working them properly.
Who signs: founder or chief executive, finance director, and the corporate adviser alongside them.
70 to 90
companies admitted to the smaller UK growth market
Natural resources and energy issuers
One of your named sectors, and the one with the highest event frequency: drill results, reserve statements, offtake agreements and capital raises all create news that has to be handled well. High message volume is what makes a retained relationship stick.
Who signs: chief executive, finance director, and the head of corporate development on transactions.
Roughly 200 to 300
self-classified natural resources and energy issuers across both UK markets; sector labels are the companies' own
Private companies with institutional backing
The pre-listing pipeline and the largest unmeasured group here. Ownership structure and listing intent are not published in any register, so this segment cannot be bought as a list. It is built one name at a time from filings, funding activity and hiring, which is slow work and the reason it stays open.
Who signs: chief executive, CFO, the investor director on the board, and the corporate finance adviser.
No public register
described rather than counted; identified individually from public filings and market activity
The adviser layer
Not a market, a referral surface. Nominated advisers, brokers and corporate finance desks sit next to every company above and are asked for a recommendation at the exact moment a mandate opens. A small, named list where being top of mind is worth more than reach.
Who signs: corporate finance partner, head of broking, nomad team lead.
Roughly 25 to 30
nominated adviser firms, plus the broking and corporate finance desks around them

Where the openings are

1
This is a switch market, not an empty one. Almost every company above already has an adviser, so the opening is a moment rather than a gap: a results season that landed badly, a capital raise, a change of adviser, a new finance director. Watching several hundred companies for those moments is mechanical work, and it is the one thing a referral channel cannot do.
2
The buyer is a role, and the role turns over. A new CFO or a new head of investor relations reopens the adviser roster more often than not, usually inside their first two quarters. A channel built on named roles catches that week. A channel built on relationships hears about it once the decision is made.
3
Your practice areas do not share one buyer. Investor relations sits with the CFO and the investor relations seat. Corporate and consumer work sits with a brand or marketing owner who may never speak to the CFO. That is two audiences and two messages, and a single referral door keeps returning to whichever one it found first.
4
The least contested segments are the smallest ones. The bottom of the growth market and the smaller exchange rarely carry any in-house communications function, so the work is unassigned rather than fought over. They are also the companies least likely to appear at the events where mandates get discussed, which is why reach has to be manufactured rather than waited for.
Built from public market data, counts banded deliberately. Counts describe companies admitted to the UK public markets and are current to 2026. Sector labels are self-reported by the companies themselves. Private ownership and listing intent are not published in any register, so that segment is described rather than counted.
ENQUIRER CONSULTING GROUP
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