Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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One of the UK's biggest bus and train companies, First Group, is under attack. An American activist investor called Coast Capital wants to boot out most of the board saying the company has been poorly run.

There will be a showdown at a shareholder meeting in a few weeks time.

"The current chief executive, who we are personally very fond of, Matthew Gregory previously was at a bingo hall operation and chemicals companies," said the boss of Coast Capital James Rasteh.

"[He] has absolutely no turnaround experience and certainly not in the surface transport industry and we think that's unacceptable, particularly given the turnaround attention that this company needs."

"The company should certainly not be burning cash in a rail business, where over the last three years they will have spent around £400m worth of capital on contracts that, post impairment, have been loss making."

First Group said it was confident that it had the right management team in place, and that it regularly reviewed the composition of its board.

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We are expecting to hear today if the government has agreed to rescue British Steel - a deal which would secure more than 4,000 jobs at the steelworks in Scunthorpe.

Sky News has reported, external that if the company can not secure a £30m loan, then it would go into administration.

We were expecting a ministerial statement on assistance for the company yesterday afternoon, that didn't come, but it is thought that ministers want to have the situation sorted out before the European elections on Thursday.

The Financial Times leads with yesterday's Huawei story with the headline: "Huawei tees up its own phone software after Google ban".

Jaguar Land Rover's record losses are featured on the front pages of the business sections of the Guardian and Times, while the latter also goes with: "Silicon Valley hit by fears of technology cold war".

Intriguing headline, but what's the story? In short, the value of technology firms is being hit by the US-China trade war. Chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom have been hit, along with Apple and Alphabet.

Meanwhile the FT's Companies & Markets section leads with the news that Ford is cutting 7,000 jobs.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's our first look at markets today and It's been a mostly upbeat session in Asia.

In afternoon trading, the Shanghai Composite rose 1.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.1%.

BBC Radio 5 Live
Wake Up To Money

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Back to Thomas Cook.

Ian Taylor, executive editor at Travel Weekly, told Wake Up To Money: "Thomas Cook can survive because it has the support of its banks and because it's holidays are protected by the Atol-protection scheme.

"That means people have no reason to worry about Thomas Cook this summer.

"But in the longer-term Thomas Cook is not likely to survive in its current form."

The key aspect is selling the airline, he said.

Image source, Getty Images

A group of footwear firms, including Nike and Adidas, have urged President Donald Trump to take footwear off a proposed list of tariffs to be imposed on shoes imported from China.

"The proposed additional tariff of 25% on footwear would be catastrophic for our consumers, our companies, and the American economy as a whole," the group of 173 companies wrote in a letter to President Trump, external.

It comes after the US hiked tariffs on $200bn (£157.1bn) worth of Chinese imports to 25% from 10% earlier this month. The US has also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on another $300bn worth of goods from China, including footwear.

Who really pays for tariffs?

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Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has hit back at US efforts to thwart the firm's global ambitions.

Mr Ren's comments to Chinese state media comes days after the Trump administration placed fresh restrictions on Huawei's ability to do business in the US.

"The current practice of US politicians underestimates our strength," Mr Ren said, according to CCTV.

"Huawei's 5G will absolutely not be affected. In terms of 5G technologies, others won't be able to catch up with Huawei in two or three years."

BBC Radio 5 Live
Wake Up To Money

Image source, Reuters

Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, has been discussing the continuing woes at Thomas Cook on Wake Up To Money.

"Investors are jumping out at a great speed: they don't want to be sat in this trade while it continues falling," she told the programme.

She warned that prospects are not looking too positive.

"The options for Thomas Cook to turn this around are looking very slim. The airline sale will create problems as they are a forced seller, which means they will get towards the lower end of their asking price.

"That's probably not going to be enough to sort out their debt issues.

"A rights issue will be far too challenging given the level of confidence in the stock."

Welcome to today's Business Live page - we'll be with you until around 9.30pm.

We're expecting a lot of business news today. There are trading updates due from W H Smiths and Greggs and full year figures from Nationwide building society, Halfords, Bloomsbury Publishing, Severn Trent.

Struggling Metro Bank holds its AGM, as does BP, which was targeted yesterday by environmental protestors.

We'll be looking at Thomas Cook, too.

Get in touch: bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk