European stocks slumped on Wednesday as a result of the latest fall in crude oil, but the collapse in energy prices is actually a boon for the region, the CEO of one of Europe's biggest transportation and energy companies told CNBC.
As net importers of oil, European countries are beneficiaries of the slump in WTI and Brent crude futures to below $28 per barrel, Nils Andersen, the head of Maersk Group, said on Wednesday.
"The lower oil price is a boost to the European economy. You are seeing the economy in Europe growing, in spite of us not having made an awful lot of structural changes to the countries' economies. So I think there are a lot of hidden pluses of these lower oil prices," he told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
U.S. light crude, also known as WTI, oil declined by around 3.3 percent in European trade to around $27.50, its lowest since 2003. Oil prices have slumped since mid-2014 because of supply-demand imbalances.