Oil price slips as US inventories swell

involved in a transaction in which a global player it did not name acquired a division of a Hungarian company because it wanted to establish an IT developer centre in central Europe.

“The target company had this expertise available, which represented the fundamental value in the transaction,” Ferenc Nagy, Transaction Advisory Services Manager said, adding that such deals were most common in IT services and manufacturing.

P r i c e w a t e r h o u s e C o o p e r s Hungary said a quarter of suppliers it surveyed in the car sector, a mainstay of economic growth, had turned down orders as a result of the labour shortage.

One source said similar takeover deals could gather steam, barring any escalation of trade wars between major economies or a slowdown in the German car sector, which accounts for a big chunk of demand for the Eastern European region.

“These kinds of deals have appeared on the radar. They are not the main driver, but they have appeared and this will only intensify,” the source said.

“Wherever there is quality workforce, that is a lot more valuable than a hastily-built production base, where the workforce may be weaker.” — Reuters SINGAPORE: Oil prices slipped after US crude inventories swelled to their highest level since December 2017 amid concerns of an emerging global glut, although the potential for a supply cut by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) prevented further drops.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, were at US$54.35 per barrel at 0534 GMT yesterady, 28 US cents, or 0.5% below their last settlement. Frontmonth Brent crude oil futures were at US$63.25 per barrel, down 23 US cents, or 0.4%.

US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 4.9 million barrels to 446.91 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a weekly report on Wednesday. That was the highest level since December last year.

US crude oil production remained at a record 11.7 million barrels per day (bpd), the EIA said. “US inventory data...continued to show significant supply builds, which comes on the back of sustained record US crude oil production,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore. — Reuters