Thursday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, Merlin Entertainments, PwC

(Sharecast News) - More than 23 million people in the UK used virtually no cash last year, while notes and coins will account for just 6% of payments within a decade, a report predicts. The findings, from the banking body UK Finance, are likely to prompt concern that millions of people could be left behind as the shift to a cashless society accelerates. - Guardian More than 115,000 UK postal workers have voted overwhelmingly for further industrial action over working conditions, ahead of four days of strikes already planned for later this month and early September. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said almost 99% of members voted in favour of taking further strike action on a 72% turnout. - Guardian

The Government has blocked the takeover of a Bristol-based electronic design company by a Hong Kong rival in a fresh sign if Britain's increasing hostility to Chinese investment. The Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, who is tipped by some Conservatives to be the next chancellor, ruled that stopping the acquisition of Pulsic, whose software can be used to build circuits, by Super Orange HK was "necessary and proportionate to mitigate the risk to national security". - Telegraph

The owner of Madame Tussauds has been hit with a winding up petition by Experian as the leisure operator seeks to bounce back from the upheaval of pandemic lockdowns. Merlin Entertainments - which also runs Alton Towers, Warwick Castle and Legoland Windsor - is facing the threat of legal proceedings from Experian, a FTSE 100 listed data company, amid a dispute over a debt. - Telegraph

A director of Ofgem has quit in protest at its decision to add hundreds of pounds to household bills this winter by changing the way it calculates the energy price cap. Christine Farnish said she had resigned because did not believe that the regulator had "struck the right balance between the interests of consumers and the interests of suppliers". - The Times

PwC's partners, who were paid more than £1 million for the first time ever this summer, will take a pay cut next year to fund rises for the accountancy group's rank-and-file staff. On average, the 995 members of the Big Four firm's top executive tier were paid £920,000 for their work in the year to end of June. That was up 12 per cent on what they received in 2021. - The Times