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Everyman cinema chain boss leaves weeks after profit warning

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Everyman cinema chain boss leaves weeks after profit warning


The boss of cinema chain Everyman has stepped down less than three weeks after the company warned trading had been weaker than expected.

Everyman Media Group said on Monday that Alex Scrimgeour was leaving with immediate effect and would be replaced on an interim basis by non-executive director Farah Golant.

His sudden departure comes after the firm issued a trading update on 10 December where it cut its forecasts for revenue and earnings, sending its shares down 20%.

The cinema chain runs 49 venues across the UK and is known for its luxury seating and gourmet menus.

Mr Scrimgeour became chief executive of Everyman Media Group in January 2021 after heading French restaurant chain Cote Brasserie since 2015.

In its trading update earlier this month, the firm said trading at the end of the year had been “weaker than anticipated”. As a result, it expected revenues of £114.5m for 2025 and underlying earnings of at least £16.8m, down from previous forecasts of £121.5m and £19.9m respectively.

Chairman Philip Jacobson said Mr Scrimgeour had “played a pivotal role in the team that successfully led the business through its recovery from Covid, more than doubling revenue”.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said the outgoing boss had to “deal with a succession of crises from day one” including the cost-of-living, as well as the the pandemic.

However, he added: “The share price fell by 76% during his tenure and time had run out.

“While the cinema industry did manage to regain some of its sparkle post-pandemic, Everyman lost its edge in the market.”

Mr Coatsworth said the upmarket chain had once offered “a unique proposition”, but had since been copied by rivals, including Vue and Odeon, which have installed reclining seats and “also rolled out bars inside their cinemas”.

He added that it would be interesting to see if Blue Coast Private Equity, which owns a 29% stake in Everyman, would buy the chain, “opting to remove it from the public spotlight to enact a turnaround programme”.



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UPI transactions hit record Rs 29.53 lakh crore in March; volumes cross 22.6 billion – The Times of India

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UPI transactions hit record Rs 29.53 lakh crore in March; volumes cross 22.6 billion – The Times of India


Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions touched a record high in March, with both value and volume hitting new peaks, driven by festive spending and financial year-end activity, according to PTI.Data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed that UPI transactions totalled Rs 29.53 lakh crore in value during March, up 19 per cent from Rs 24.77 lakh crore in the same month last year.On a month-on-month basis, transaction value rose 10 per cent from Rs 26.84 lakh crore recorded in February.In volume terms, UPI registered 22.64 billion transactions during the month, marking a 24 per cent increase from 18.3 billion transactions a year ago. The volume was 20.39 billion in February.Average daily transactions stood at 730 million, with an average daily value of Rs 95,243 crore, as spending picked up during festivals such as Holi and Eid.“The sustained growth in the digital payment ecosystem in India is an affirmation of the penetration of real-time payment systems in the day-to-day life of the people. UPI processed 22.64 billion transactions worth 29.53 lakh crore in March 2026, marking its emergence as one of the trusted payment systems in the country,” said Anand Kumar Bajaj, MD & CEO of PayNearby.UPI now accounts for around 85 per cent of all digital transactions in India and contributes nearly 50 per cent of global real-time digital payments.The platform is operational in seven countries, including the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France and Mauritius, with its entry into France marking its first expansion into Europe.NPCI, an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks’ Association, operates UPI, enabling real-time peer-to-peer and merchant payments across the country.



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Minimum wage rises to £12.71 an hour as firms warn of impact

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Minimum wage rises to £12.71 an hour as firms warn of impact


But Spencer says his business is being squeezed from every angle – as well as minimum wage, he has had increases in business rates, national insurance, and statutory sick pay. He also expects energy bills to go up because of the war in the Middle East.



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Visa launches new AI tools to manage the charge dispute process

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Visa launches new AI tools to manage the charge dispute process


Visa Inc. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Visa is launching six new tools using artificial intelligence to modernize the process of disputing credit card charges, the company told CNBC exclusively.

The digital payments company said the tools are designed to reduce the costs and frustration of “outdated” dispute processes for multiple entities involved in the payments process: merchants, issuers and acquirers.

“Some of the challenges are these back-office systems are still largely manual,” Andrew Torre, Visa’s president of value-added services, told CNBC. “We really had to think differently about how we approach this at scale.”

In 2025, Torre said, Visa processed more than 103 million charge disputes globally, marking a 35% increase since 2019.

“Our goal is to streamline this as much as possible,” Torre said. “We’d love to be able to see that growth rate come down.”

Visa’s new tools are part of a larger push by major banks and financial institutions to incorporate AI into their businesses — both internally and in consumer-facing applications. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have both said they’re already using AI to hire fewer people. BNY spent $3.8 billion on technology in 2025, or about 19% of its revenue.

Visa said three of its six new tools focus on merchants, allowing them to address potential disputes before they escalate, managing disputes with generative AI responses and providing a deeper level of detail on order insights to manage confusion over unfamiliar charges.

For example, Torre said, many disputes are borne out of cardholders not recognizing a specific charge on their statements. With the new tool, Visa will be able to provide further details to financial institutions to show cardholders that data at a deeper level, according to the company.

The other three tools are built for issuers and acquirers, using predictive AI models to aid in case-by-case analysis, analyzing documents for summaries and auto fill and establishing an AI-powered dispute platform to manage the entire process in one location, Visa said.

“We’ll be able to get them insights and data so they can move from being reactive to proactive,” Torre said.

Torre said Visa’s new AI tools are part of a broader host of solutions for consumers, including a subscription manager announced last week that allows cardholders to cancel unnecessary subscriptions directly on the manager.

The automation will save time, money and unnecessary confusion for both parties, he added. Most of the tools will be generally available later this year, the company said.

“We really believe that disputes in this solution makes it much easier to manage and resolve,” Torre said. “We think it has better outcomes for everyone.”

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