Privately owned national brokerage Insurance House has shut down market speculation on its future, saying efforts to force a sale are not credible.

Non-Executive Chairman Gary Gribbin told insuranceNEWS.com.au today that a former employee has teamed up with a merger consultant to “spruik to listed entities that they can deliver Insurance House”.

Mr Gribbin says those behind the scheme claim to have 51% shareholder support and can therefore activate drag-along rights, forcing the remainder to join the deal.

“They have much less than that and certainly do not act for any of the major shareholders,” Mr Gribbin said.

“The board has 56% of shares, and yesterday each director confirmed they had no involvement.”

Mr Gribbin says Insurance House is not for sale and is “not interested in fielding offers”.

“If we did sell, we’d do it in a much more professional manner,” he said.

“We have an unambiguous shareholders agreement that utterly precludes this sort of activity. It is terribly disruptive and really appalling behaviour.

“Naturally the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will become involved. We are in the process of reporting it.”

insuranceNEWS.com.au is aware of the names of the parties involved in the matter, but attempts to contact them today were not successful.