UK-listed financial services group Collins Stewart is looking at setting up a wealth management business in Singapore. Chief executive Joel Plasco told Reuters that the firm would grow its existing business rather than by buying other firms because its low share price made mergers and acquisitions unattractive. The new Singapore office, which was set up last month, currently targets Asian firms looking to list their shares on stock markets ranging from London's AIM and Nasdaq to the Singapore Exchange's new Catalist market for small companies. The move to Singapore is part of the UK stockbroker's foreign expansion drive that has taken it to New York and Mumbai. Collins Stewart also announced plans last October to set up a fund management unit in Dublin to complement its existing operations in London and the Channel Islands. Mr Plasco rejected reports that its management was pursuing a buyout aimed at taking the firm private. "We are not actively pursuing a management buyout despite everyone telling us we are," said Mr Plasco told Reuters ahead of the opening of its Singapore office. Collins Stewart has also been subject to takeover speculation. In December, Japan's Nomura Holdings denied reports that it was in talks to buy the UK firm for £700 million ($1.4 billion).