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A kick in the gear-box for insurers but great news for personal injury victims

Published: 07:39 27 Feb 2017 EST

Personal injury

I’ve never been quite sure what the Lord Chancellor does, but now I know. She kicks the car insurance companies in the old gearbox.

(Shouldn’t it be a Dame Chancellor, if a woman holds the role?)

The Lord Chancellor announced a cut to the discount rate used by courts in England and Wales to calculate personal injury damages awards, putting a dent in the share price of car insurers such as Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LON:DLG) and Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADM) in the process.

The Guardian reports that Mohammad Khan, an insurance expert at PwC, predicted an increase of £50-£75 on an average comprehensive motor insurance policy.

Khan expects higher increases for younger and older drivers, “potentially up to £1,000 for younger drivers (18 to 22) and a rise of up to £300 for older drivers (over 65).”

The Association of British Insurers called it a “massive own goal” that would likely land the National Health Service with a £1bn hike in compensation bills.

Of course, if someone is losing out, someone must be gaining, and some commentators are happy that this will lead to bigger pay-outs to severely injured victims.

On the other hand, I am not sure the person who tweeted this has quite got the hang of this hashtag lark yet.

Or maybe they are very clever at marketing.

You can get the lowdown on the changes from Proactive’s very own Jon Hopkins.

Right, that’s the car story sorted, what else does Mondeo Man fret about?

The Financial Times puts this morning’s trading update in a nutshell: Persimmon built more homes and sold them at a higher profit margin.

It does not seem to have done much for the share price, however, which is down slightly.

As well as buying shares in Persimmon, you can also apparently slice them up and eat them (persimmons, that is, not the shares.

It sounds quite tasty, actually.

Although Britain is in the process of starting divorce proceedings, it looks like the European Union could get at least one key decision in before it all happens.

If it is akin to a divorce, however, the EU's reaction is a bit like the husband saying "whatever else happens I'll be making damn sure you do keep the Jag", as the EU looks like it will be preventing a German company (Deutsche Boerse) from taking over the London Stock Exchange.

Or is the EU saying we don't want your steenking stock exchange?

Where were these guys when that US plastic cheese company was buying up Cadbury or, for that matter, that formula milk scandal-hit Swiss company was buying up Rowntree?

Not that I only care about Quaker chocolate companies, you understand.

On the small caps front, results from Verona Pharma PLC (LON:VRP) have proved popular.

The shares surged as the respiratory disease specialist used the occasion of the publication of its full-year results to list all of the milestones it passed in 2016.

The loss ballooned to £9mln from £6.0mln the year before, but that’s pretty much par for the course for pre-revenue pharmaceutical companies.

The company plans to list on Nasdaq, which could see its profile raised further.

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