Richard Enthoven, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of direct insurance marketing company Greenstone, has no regrets about last year’s aborted $984 million float.

“We went through a process to see whether we could achieve an attractive price for the shares we were listing, but we couldn’t and we discontinued the process,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “It’s no more significant than that.

“At the end of the day, you need a willing seller and willing buyer and we were not able to achieve that. We were willing sellers at a certain price and were not willing sellers at a lower price.”

Greenstone’s product range covers life, funeral, income protection and pet insurance. Its proprietary brands include Real Insurance, Australian Seniors Insurance Agency, Guardian Insurance and Prime Pet Insurance. Greenstone also owns the Choosi online comparison site.

Greenstone was formed by the Enthoven family’s South Africa-based Hollard Insurance Group in 2007 and UK-based entrepreneur Gavin Donnelly.

Hollard has been operating in Australia since 1999. Mr Enthoven says there are “no plans to re-activate the initial public offering process” for Greenstone.

“We are considering our options in terms of bringing a minority stakeholder into our business,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

When Greenstone issued its prospectus last June with an indicative price of $2-$2.50 per share – which would have raised $810-$984 million – fund managers and institutional investors baulked at the implied valuation.

The co-founders missed out on their big payday, but with plans to sell up to 40% of the business privately they may yet reap the rewards of their insurance start-up.

“We think we’re in a really good position to have a constructive conversation with potential investors,” Mr Enthoven said. “We’ll continue to run Greenstone in the way we always have, focused on direct distribution of insurance products.”

Although it’s largely business as usual, Mr Enthoven says Greenstone will be “looking at new brands and new distribution partners”.