Barron's : Akzo Nobel Paints a Prettier Profit Picture

Akzo Nobel Paints a Prettier Profit Picture

A continuing restructuring makes the Dutch paint and coatings outfit more efficient and more tempting to investors. A 2.4% dividend adds to stock’s allure.

Paint and coatings maker Akzo Nobel could bring a bit of gloss to investors’ portfolios in 2016.

If the Dutch company’s results continue to impress–its earnings have met or exceeded expectations for the past six quarters–its shares (ticker: AKZA.Netherlands) can climb 20% in the next 12 months.

The stock closed in Amsterdam at 61.68 euros ($67.03) Thursday, up 7% in 2015, in line with the Stoxx Europe 600 index’s chemicals subsector. Akzo’s American depositary receipts, traded in New York under the symbol AKZOY, were fetching $22 and change late Thursday afternoon. Three ADRs equal one ordinary share.

Akzo Nobel, a leading provider of decorative paints, with brands including Dulux, Sikkens, International, Interpon, and Eka, trades for 14.7 times estimated 2016 earnings. That’s less than the chemicals subsector’s multiple of 15.9, and well below the P/Es of U.S. rivals such as Sherwin-Williams (SHW), which trades at a multiple of more than 20.

Historically, Akzo Nobel, which has a market value of more than €15 billion, has changed hands at a 35% discount to its U.S. peers. There’s no doubt that Sherwin-Williams’ stellar earnings growth merits a higher valuation, but Akzo Nobel is brushing up its performance. A far-reaching restructuring is helping it play catch-up, despite weak demand due to high exposure to emerging markets and stagnating industrial growth.

Decorative paints account for only 27% of Akzo Nobel’s revenue, based on 2014 figures. Performance coatings, used in construction and in products including consumer electronics, account for 39%, while specialty chemicals generate 34%. The company’s largest markets are the euro zone, which produces about 27% of sales, the U.S. (14%), and China (12%).

Under CEO Ton Büchner, Akzo Nobel has had something of a shake-up. Low-volume businesses, such as chemical paper, have been sold, and the workforce continues to shrink. It fell 23%, to 47,000, from 2008 to 2014.

Restructuring costs are generating savings estimated at €800 million annually and the company is capturing more organic growth. “We believe Akzo has done much of the hard work to close performance gaps with its peers despite more challenging headwinds,” notes Société Genérale analyst Peter Clark, who rates the stock Buy with a €75 price target.

Akzo Nobel might be considering narrowing the gap further by selling its specialty chemicals business, while looking for bolt-on acquisitions in decorative paints and performance coatings.

Akzo Nobel has benefited from the euro’s decline against the dollar — 10% in 2015 — and the lower price of oil, which accounts for about 40% of its raw-materials costs. As a result, margins, returns, and cash flow have increased, even though volume has shrunk. Akzo Nobel is aiming for a return on sales of 9% in 2015 and a return on investment of 14%, both of which appear to be within reach.

Management is sufficiently confident to boost those targets in the medium term. In the fall, executives reported that they will seek returns of 9%-11% on sales and 13%-16.5% on investment in the 2016-18 stretch.

Amsterdam-based Akzo Nobel is expected to report 2015 earnings of €4.01 a share on sales of €14.85 billion, according to the consensus analysts’ estimate. That compares with €2.76 on sales of €14.30 billion in 2014. In 2016, the company is projected to earn €4.23 on more than €15 billion in sales.

Several analysts reckon that Akzo Nobel could be worth €75 a share in 12 months’ time. They reach that figure with sum-of-the-parts calculations, and a multiple of normalized 2016 EPS. Atop that, Akzo Nobel offers a dividend yield of 2.4%, which could hit about 3% in 2016 or 2017.

Investors looking to spruce up their portfolios for the year ahead should consider Akzo Nobel.

THE STOXX EUROPE 600 ended the year up 6.8%, despite a 5.1% selloff in December.

The consumer-goods sector jumped 20%, making it the index’s best performer. Gaming stock Betfair Group (BET.U.K.) was the biggest gainer, more than doubling in value, to 3,900 British pence, on a proposed acquisition by rival Paddy Power (PLSA.Ireland).

The worst-performing sector, down 7.5%, was basic resources, unsurprisingly walloped by a 34% drop in materials, such as base metals. That weakness also meant that U.K. stocks were big losers. The resources-heavy FTSE 100 index fell 4.9%.

Germany’s manufacturing-rich DAX index gained 9.6%, helped by the euro’s weakness, which aided exports. It seems poised to perform well again in 2016.

WSJ : After a Tumultuous 2015, Investors Have Low Expectations for Markets

After a Tumultuous 2015, Investors Have Low Expectations for Markets

‘Not a lot of things to get enthusiastic about, and a long list of things to be worried about,’ says one investor

After a year of disappointment in everything from U.S. stocks to emerging markets and junk bonds, investors are approaching 2016 with low expectations.

Some see the past year as a bad omen. Two major stock indexes posted their first annual decline since the financial crisis, while energy prices fell even further. Emerging markets and junk bonds also struggled.

Others view the pullback as a sensible breather for some markets after years of strong gains.

While large gains were common as markets recovered in the years after the 2008 financial crisis, many investors say such returns are growing harder to come by, and expect slim gains at best this year.

“You have to be very muted in your expectations,” said Margie Patel, senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds who said she expects mid-single percentage-point gains in major U.S. stock indexes this year.

“It’s pretty hard to point to a sector or an industry where you could say, well, that’s going to grow very, very rapidly,” she said, adding that there are “not a lot of things to get enthusiastic about, and a long list of things to be worried about.”

As the year neared an end, a fierce selloff hit junk bonds in December, while U.S. government bond yields rose only modestly despite the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its benchmark interest rate in December, showing investors weren’t ready to retreat from relatively safe government bonds.

For the U.S., 2015’s rough results stood in contrast to three stellar years. After rising 46% from 2012 through 2014, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.2% last year. The S&P 500 fell 0.7%.

While most Wall Street equity strategists still expect gains for U.S. stocks this year, they also once again expect higher levels of volatility than in years past. Of 16 investment banks that issued forecasts for this year, two-thirds expect the S&P 500 to finish 2016 at a level less than 10% above last year’s close, according to stock-market research firm Birinyi Associates.

Some investors say a pause for stocks is normal for a bull market of this length, which has been the longest since the 1990s. Including dividends, the S&P 500 has returned 249% since its crisis-era low of 2009.

In the past, flat or near-flat years for stocks often have preceded big gains. In each of the three years after 2011, essentially flat for the S&P 500, the index posted a double-digit percent rise.

Yet the slowdown in economic growth around the world remains a major hurdle for global markets. A deceleration in China and other emerging economies led the International Monetary Fund to repeatedly cut its growth outlook last year. It expects global growth of 3.6% in 2016.

For 2016, analysts expect S&P 500 profits to expand 7.6%, according to FactSet, but investors say a deeper growth slowdown, another slide in oil or further gains in the dollar could curb that figure.

Peter Stournaras who manages $16.2 billion in large-company stock funds at BlackRock Inc., said he expects U.S. stocks to rise in line with earnings growth, which he expects to come in between 5% and 10% this year. But he added that “there are things that are much more concerning this year than they were at the end of” 2014, including the turmoil in energy and high-yield bonds.

Emerging markets, a trouble spot for investors in 2015, continue to look shaky, as the dollar rallies and a commodity rout persists. Last year, emerging-market stocks fell 17%, according to MSCI Inc., and bonds in local currencies lost 15%, according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., amid concerns over the underlying economic health of many countries.

Capital flight could be a taxing issue for countries that rely on foreign investments to fund their deficits. The problem: Companies and countries that have borrowed heavily in dollars but whose income is denominated in local currencies have become pinched as the dollar has strengthened. Further, their borrowing costs will likely increase as the U.S. central bank tightens monetary policy, which could further boost the dollar.

Plunging commodity prices, fueled by waning demand amid slowing global growth, have hamstrung many emerging economies that rely on income from exporting raw materials.

“I am not necessarily in a hurry to load up on emerging markets,” said Jurrien Timmer, a strategist at Fidelity Investments. He notes that low commodity prices and slow growth could remain a hurdle, and advises sticking to developed-country markets for now.

One reason for optimism: Economic growth in emerging economies still outpaces the developed the world, and is expected to rise to an average of 4.5% in 2016, up from last year’s 4%, which would mark the first acceleration since 2010, according to the IMF. However, that outlook was cut several times in 2015.

The bond market tripped up investors in 2015, but some are optimistic that the more troublesome corners of the market have stabilized.

The junk-bond market has steadied somewhat since its December selloff, and most of the turmoil has remained confined to the energy and mining sectors, where investors feared persistently low commodity prices could lead some low-rated firms to default.

Some investors say the selloff lowered prices enough that bargains are now available, and that the relative strength of the U.S. economy bodes well for the junk-bond market overall.

“We could actually start off the year with a pretty nice rally” in corporate-debt markets, said Jim Sarni, managing principal at Payden & Rygel. Mr. Sarni says his firm is generally favoring bonds from companies in the retail and health care sectors, though it is avoiding energy names.

Mr. Sarni said he is holding less Treasury debt compared with a bond index. But he doesn’t expect the 10-year Treasury yield to rise significantly in a world of low growth and contained inflation

WSJ : Fifteen CEOs to Watch in 2016

Fifteen CEOs to Watch in 2016

From Brito to Whitman and VW’s Müller, these chiefs must contend with impatient investors, slumping sales, megamergers and more

CARLOS BRITO
The Brazilian-born head of the world’s largest brewer faces a host of challenges. To complete the roughly $108 billion takeover of SABMiller PLC in the second half of the year, as planned, he must secure regulatory approval in South Africa, Europe and the U.S. He also must integrate the companies and cut $1.4 billion in costs. And he must do so while navigating challenges in AB InBev’s biggest markets: Brazil, which is in recession, and the U.S., where beer-sales volumes are contracting.

MARCELO CLAURE
When Marcelo Claure took over as CEO of Sprint Corp. in 2014, the carrier had been losing customers and money for several years. Last year, Mr. Claure was able to clock a modest return to subscriber growth. But ahead of a big debt maturity in 2016, the pressure is on for Mr. Claure to cut costs while continuing to add new subscribers. If not, some analysts say Sprint could run out of money.

STEVE EASTERBROOK
In less than a year running McDonald’s Corp., Mr. Easterbrook has tried some bold moves to try to turn around the struggling burger chain. He introduced all-day breakfast, simplified the menu, and vowed to curb the use of antibiotics in chicken and switch to cage-free eggs. Initial signs are positive, but investors and customers are waiting to see what else he has in store to maintain the world’s biggest fast-food chain’s turnaround in 2016.


STEVE ELLS
After years of bemoaning the ills of fast food and creating an avid following for Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., founder Mr. Ells is in the unusual spot of playing defense. The co-CEO of the burrito chain apologized in December for foodborne-disease outbreaks that sickened customers in several states and added to other business challenges for Chipotle. In 2016 he will have to win back consumer trust and convince people that Chipotle’s food is safe.

HUNTER HARRISON
Mr. Harrison faces his biggest challenge yet at the helm of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.—completing his $30 billion hostile bid for Norfolk Southern Corp. The railroad executive—as well as activist investor and CP shareholder William Ackman—are betting the deal will boost the combined companies’ profits and improve service for shippers. Norfolk Southern’s board opposes the offer as too low and argues that regulatory rejection of the tie-up is likely amid industry concerns that the deal would trigger further consolidation and reduce competition.


ANDREW LIVERIS
The chief executive of Dow Chemical Co. is on the cusp of pulling together a long-pursued combination with rival DuPont Co. The companies agreed to form an agricultural and chemical giant worth $120 billion, with Mr. Liveris as executive chairman of the board before the combined entity eventually splits into three smaller companies. Not everyone wants him to stick around. Activist shareholder Dan Loeb, who’s been sharply critical of Dow’s strategy, has called for Mr. Liveris, 61 years old, to be removed. And the combination is likely to face a detailed, lengthy review by antitrust regulators.

MARISSA MAYER
Forget turning around Yahoo Inc. Ms. Mayer likely will spend 2016 trying to keep her job and resolve the imminent crisis gripping the 20-year-old Internet company. Investor confidence in the CEO dropped in December, when she shelved a plan to spin off Yahoo’s valuable stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. because of potential tax risks. With revenue declining and executives fleeing, some investors are calling for a sale of the Internet business.

SHERI MCCOY
In December, Ms. McCoy agreed to sell a stake in Avon Products Inc. to Cerberus Capital Management LP and carve out the beauty company’s money-losing North American business. The bold move is aimed at reviving Avon’s fortunes, but also puts the 57-year-old’s job at risk because the company is replacing half its board of directors. As Ms. McCoy nears her fourth anniversary as CEO, investors are becoming impatient for Avon to show sustained sales growth.

MATTHIAS MÜLLER
Mr. Müller, 62 years old, was catapulted into the driver’s seat at Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest car maker, in September in the wake of a damaging emissions-cheating scandal.

A company veteran, he is now steering Volkswagen’s fortunes through its worst crisis in its nearly 80-year history. Volkswagen could face billions in fines and compensation charges.

Mr. Müller’s challenge in 2016: minimize the regulatory fallout and financial outlay from the scandal, keep VW profit on track, and restore confidence in the brand.

OSCAR MUNOZ
Mr. Munoz faces a daunting comeback in 2016 when he returns to helm United Continental Holdings Inc. following an October heart attack that put him on medical leave just weeks after he became CEO. Mr. Munoz, who turns 57 on Monday and was an airline neophyte before his September appointment, is scheduled to return in the first quarter. He will have to resume his efforts to fix the deep labor and operations problems that have plagued United for years, along with rebuilding a depleted management bench.

DOUG OBERHELMAN
After becoming CEO of Caterpillar Inc. in 2010, Mr. Oberhelman raced to open plants and make acquisitions to meet demand for construction and mining equipment. Then a crash in commodity prices and an abrupt slowdown in China left Caterpillar with excess capacity. It faces a fourth consecutive year of falling sales, assuming forecasts for a dismal 2016 prove accurate, piling further pressure on the 62-year-old Mr. Oberhelman.


MICHAEL PEARSON
Mr. Pearson has taken medical leave from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., which disclosed that the 56-year-old CEO is battling severe pneumonia. The Canadian drug company has been struggling to overcome regulatory and strategic challenges. This wasn’t what Mr. Pearson had in mind when he left McKinsey Co. as a consultant in 2008, seeking to remake Valeant through acquisitions and R&D cutbacks. The company now faces probes about its drug pricing and other practices, and the length of Mr. Pearson’s absence remains an open question.

GINNI ROMETTY
After 14 straight quarters of declining revenue, International Business Machines Corp. is trying to reinvent itself for the second time in a quarter century. CEO Virginia “Ginni” Rometty has charted a course for the emerging realms of cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. Her challenge is to shift IBM’s business from projects tailored to large, individual customers to offerings that appeal to entire industries; for instance, services that use weather data to help retailers manage inventory. If she can’t show results in 2016, shareholders’ patience may run out.

DAVID TAYLOR
Procter & Gamble Co.’s third CEO since 2013, Mr. Taylor has been tasked with leading the maker of Pampers diapers, Pantene shampoo and Gillette razors out of a protracted sales slump. The 57-year-old P&G veteran is under pressure to show broad-based sales growth and turn around struggling brands like Olay. Mr. Taylor will have to complete an overhaul that has so far shed dozens of brands while sharing duties with his predecessor, who has stayed on as executive chairman.

MEG WHITMAN
The new year raises the curtain on Meg Whitman’s second act. In Act I, she divided in two Hewlett-Packard Co., the moribund Silicon Valley pioneer she took over in 2011. Now, as CEO of the new Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.—the former company’s corporate-computing half—she must focus on growth. Cloud computing has brought a sea change in corporate buying habits. Look for Ms. Whitman’s HPE try to help its customers bridge the gap between their own data centers and cloud services sold by companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

FT : Apple car: a slice of the pie

Apple car: a slice of the pie

Plan is either the worst-kept secret since its watch or a cracker of an inside joke

Apple’s car is either the worst-kept secret since its watch or a cracker of an inside joke. “Project Titan” has generated massive hype for a product that is five to 10 years off. The iCar may be electric and drive itself or not. Few know. But if it does arrive, it will be stylish, tech savvy, integrate with the iPhone and be in demand. Who will build them? Not Apple: it does not build its phones or computers, and building cars is much more complicated — just ask Tesla.
An existing carmaker might build it. Plenty of carmakers taught Chinese joint venture partners how to make cars as the price of admission to the growing Chinese market, even at the risk of increasing low-cost competition. The iCar market would be large and lucrative. A big global carmaker might be tempted to help with the build, even if Apple monopolised the branding, customer relationship and profitability. The benefits of scale and the brand halo might encourage them to overlook the risk of cannibalised sales.
More likely that a Chinese carmaker would step in. The manufacturer would be cost efficient for Apple and gain needed scale for itself. And premium-priced Apple cars are unlikely to cannibalise sales of low-priced models for the Chinese market.
Another likely option is Magna Steyr, the world’s largest white-label carmaker. It builds cars in European and Chinese plants to meet overflow demand or specialised, low-volume models for BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Aston Martin. Building cars is a side business for parent company Magna International, but the group has $18bn in enterprise value, supplies all the big carmakers and has been serious about growth since its founder left in late 2012 (shares are up 166 per cent since). Like the phones, most of the iCar’s profit will be Apple’s, but there is a slice of pie there for the partner.

FT : Aston Martin seeks to outpace spectre of unprofitability

Aston Martin seeks to outpace spectre of unprofitability

An end-of-year communiqué from Aston Martin listed the British carmaker’s accomplishments in 2015.
February brought three new, limited-edition vehicles, including the Vulcan, which spits fire out of its exhausts. March involved a glimpse of an ambitious 4x4 at the Geneva motor show. October introduced the world to the DB10 — another special edition sports car featured in the latest James Bond film.

“All this is very interesting, and very sexy, and very shiny,” says Mark Wilson, chief financial officer and one of several newly installed managers. “But if we don’t secure the financial future of the business now, then it will all have been in vain.”
Aston, which has been in insolvency seven times in its 102-year history, is in turnround mode, striving for sustainable earnings. It last made a pre-tax profit, of £6.9m, in 2010.
If Aston’s first full year under Andy Palmer, chief executive, was about promises, 2016 is about starting to deliver on those pledges. In the coming months the Warwickshire-based manufacturer will unveil its first full production sports car in four years: the £140,000 DB11, successor to the DB9 grand tourer.
When that model goes on sale in the third quarter of 2016, it will mark the end of the first phase of Mr Palmer’s six-year business plan. In the second phase, Aston will renew its entire four-strong sports car range, having secured the necessary funding.
“It’s not a question of looking for external help any more,” he says. “It’s about management carrying out its duty diligently and delivering the cars on time, to cost.”
Standing in the way are two problems: Aston is inefficient and carries too much debt. “Clearly, we are geared up to the ears at the moment,” says Mr Wilson, formerly of McLaren and Lotus.

Aston’s debt load includes payment in kind notes totalling $165m, issued in March 2014 at an interest rate of 10.25 per cent. That was on top of £304m of senior secured notes issued in 2011, at 9.25 per cent. Last year it issued interesting-bearing preference shares and raised £200m.
A steep rise in financing costs contributed to a pre-tax loss of £72m for 2014, almost triple its 2013 deficit.
In October the company carried out a restructuring that cut 295 roles, most of them white collar. Today the company employs about 1,800 people.
Aston is also trying to streamline its engineering processes and eliminate what Mr Palmer calls “muda” — the Japanese term for waste.
That does not mean compromising the company’s famous craft production. Its Gaydon factory has only one robot — the “James Bonder”, which puts glue on the chassis. Doors, seats, even parcel shelves are built in-house to order.
Instead, the management team wants to inject a rigour that is common with larger manufacturers but has so far evaded little Aston.
Marek Reichman, chief designer, and Ian Minards, product development director, have been tasked with improving work processes. This could involve speeding up a car’s journey from design to manufacturing, or reducing the number of changes required in the development process.

Aston wants to work with suppliers to reduce costs and periodically review the bill of materials for each car. “It’s just good practice,” says Mr Wilson. “It’s not something Aston has ever done.”
At the same time as bringing about this new efficiency, the group is expanding. It has installed a second production line and a new body shop for the DB11. It is even eyeing a new factory for the planned DBX four-by-four.
This may sound ambitious, but Aston has hit its targets for adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for three consecutive quarters, and hopes for 20 per cent increase in ebitda in 2016 — against a company goal of up to £70m for this year.
By 2018 it wants to be generating positive free cash flow and making pre-tax profits.
Then comes phase three of Mr Palmer’s turnround plan: brand extension in the mould of Porsche and Ferrari. This means turning Aston into a company that not only builds sports cars, but also manufactures 4x4s such as the flamboyant DBX.
And there is consistent talk of an initial public offering — particularly since Ferrari’s New York listing in October. “We like to think we’d get there,” says Mr Wilson. “It is exactly where we should be and where we deserve to be — if we get all of this right.”

FT : Property company insolvencies rise as UK ‘zombies’ are killed off


The rate at which UK property companies entered insolvency reached its highest point in six years in 2015 as rising property values prompted lenders to put “zombie” companies out of their misery and reclaim their assets.
Some 346 property companies went out of business in the second quarter of 2015, the most recent period for which figures are available — more than four times the equivalent figure in 2010, according to data compiled by the law firm EMW. In the year to April 2015, 1,307 property groups were wound down.

The figures have been rising steadily since 2010 as the aftermath of the financial crisis played out and property prices recovered.
“Banks have been holding on to these sour loans since the credit crunch struck and are using this opportunity to recoup some of the value tied up in this bad debt,” said Geoff Willis, principal at EMW.
He added that, during the recession, banks were unwilling to further depress property prices by putting assets from insolvent companies on the market. “Banks haven’t been able to achieve the prices they wanted to get for this debt by selling to distressed debt investors such as private equity firms.”
Companies liquidated during 2015 included Murray International Holdings and its subsidiaries, Scottish firms headed by Sir David Murray, a metals and property entrepreneur who formerly owned Rangers Football Club. They closed with total debts of at least £200m under pressure from the Bank of Scotland after failing to recover from the 2008 crash.
Another Scottish property company, SI Hotels Glasgow Investments Limited — which owned Glasgow’s Radisson Blu hotel — entered administration in November, while two divisions of Skelwith Group, a York-based luxury developer, went into liquidation.
Mr Willis said the overall rise in insolvencies “is down to improved property prices, rather than an indication the market is in trouble”.

UK commercial property delivered average total returns of 14.4 per cent in the year to the end of September 2015, according to the IPD index, making five years of double-digit annualised increases.
Rents on London’s West End office space rose 21.6 per cent in the year to October and occupancy also improved, with take-up increasing by 58 per cent, according to Savills, an estate agency. A shortage has also boosted rents and occupancy in Edinburgh offices.
Meanwhile, post-crisis distressed loans have been gradually unwound: they had fallen £15.7bn across the UK by the end of June, from £23.2bn at the start of the year, according to De Montfort University research.

FT : Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr

Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr

Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people for terrorism, including a leading Shia dissident cleric.
The execution on Saturday morning of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a staunch opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family, has further stirred sectarian tensions in the Gulf and triggered threats from regional rival Iran.

The Iranian foreign ministry accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorist movements and extremists abroad while confronting domestic critics with oppression and execution. “The Saudi government will pay a high price for following these policies,” the Iranian foreign ministry said.
The executions took place in 12 locations across the kingdom on Saturday, a report on the official Saudi Press Agency said.
The statement said the accused, 45 Saudis, an Egyptian and a Chadian national, had been found guilt of carrying out and planning terrorist attacks on Saudis, foreigners, diplomats, security personnel and oil installations.
One activist said that 45 of those executed were al-Qaeda members and sympathisers, with the other two being Shia.
Many of the charges related to terrorist attacks that took place during the al-Qaeda insurgency that was put down a decade ago.
The charges laid out in the statement also seemed to refer to the claims previously made against Sheikh Nimr, namely “calling for the shooting of security forces by fire arms and throwing Molotov bombs.”
Shia activists have denied that Sheikh Nimr was involved in violent resistance, but many Saudis argue that his incitement against the government was tantamount to terrorism and often defend his death sentence.
The activist said the government probably executed Shia dissidents at the same time as al-Qaeda sympathisers to back its claim to be taking an even-handed approach in its crackdown down on terrorism. The Shia minority in the oil-rich eastern province has for years complained of discrimination.

The Saudi Press Agency report, citing the Koran, said: “The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land.”
The mass execution is likely to revive international condemnation of the harsh judicial system of this western ally.
A further deterioration in bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran comes as proxy battles between the two rumble on through the Middle East.
Talks in Geneva last month to bring an end to the war in Yemen failed to find a resolution, condemning the country to further violence as a Saudi-led coalition tries to push back Iran-allied Houthi militias and reinstate the Riyadh-backed government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The Syrian civil war pits Iran-allied president, Bashar al-Assad, against rebels backed by Riyadh and other Gulf states.
The execution of Sheikh Nimr surprised observers who had assumed that the government would refrain from signing his death warrant for fear of stoking sectarian tensions in the eastern province and neighbouring Bahrain, where the Shia majority continue pro-democracy protests against the Sunni Al Khalifa royal family.
Shia Muslims marched through the eastern town of Qatif to protest Sheikh Nimr’s execution, according to reports. Demonstrations against the executions in a Shia village to the west of the capital Manama were also quelled by riot police on Saturday.
In Bahrain police fired tear gas at protesters. Demonstrators carrying pictures of the cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, faced security forces in a stand-off in the Shia Muslim village of Abu-Saiba, west of the capital Manama, Reuters reported.

(ZH) Gun Sales Surge In Switzerland As Army Chief Warns "Arm Yourselves"

Gun Sales Surge In Switzerland As Army Chief Warns "Arm Yourselves" http://bit.ly/1kyqGG4

It would appear the people of Switzerland have been listening to their military leaders. Having recently been warned by the Swiss army chief of growing social unrest, SwissInfo reports applications for gun permits in Switzerland increased by 20% between 2014 and 2015, according to a survey conducted in 12 cantons. But while the army proposes "arm yourselves," Swiss crime prevention officials warn against the false sense of security that guns bring.

Whereas in 2011 numerous people in Switzerland voluntarily gave up their firearms, today more and more people are purchasing guns.

Swiss army chief André Blattmann warned, "The threat of terror is rising, hybrid wars are being fought around the globe; the economic outlook is gloomy and the resulting migration flows of displaced persons and refugees have assumed unforeseen dimensions," adding that "Social unrest can not be ruled out."

He further recalled the situation around the two world wars in the last century and advised the people of Switzerland to arm themselves...

And, as SwissInfo reports, it appears they have...

Applications for gun permits in Switzerland increased by 20% between 2014 and 2015, according to a survey conducted in 12 cantons by Swiss public television, SRF.
The survey, published on Wednesday, showed that in the 12 (out of 26) cantons surveyed, the Swiss are increasingly interested in purchasing pistols, rifles and other firearms for private use.
The greatest increase – more than 70% – was measured in canton Vaud, with more than 4,200 applications in 2015, compared with 2,427 in 2014.
There is a general climate of uncertainty and an increased fear of intruders, said Pierre-Olivier Gaudard, head of crime prevention for canton Vaud.
But Martin Boess, director of Swiss crime prevention, warned against the false sense of security that guns bring.

“When there are more guns in circulation, there is a greater danger for society,” he said in an interview on the 10 vor 10 news programme. “That’s shown by experience in places like the United States. When there are more guns, there are more accidents with guns.”
In Switzerland, with more than 8 million inhabitants, there are about 2.5 million legal weapons, around half of which are used for Swiss military service.
* * *

And while the Swiss go about their legal business of arming themselves, President Obama is preparing to unleash another weapon - the executive order - to enact gun-control legislation.

Facing stiff resistance to gun-control legislation in Congress, Mr. Obama has signaled that he plans to act on his own. The president has directed administration officials to explore any steps he could take on guns without lawmakers’ help, and he said in his weekly address that he would sit down with Ms. Lynch on Monday “to discuss our options.”
“I get too many letters from parents, and teachers, and kids to sit around and do nothing,” Mr. Obama said in the address, which was released Friday morning.
Gun-control advocates who are familiar with the White House’s plans say Mr. Obama could lay out multiple executive actions as soon as next week, and administration officials have confirmed that recommendations for the president are nearing completion.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Mr. Obama asked his team to “scrub existing legal authorities” and assess actions that could be taken administratively.
Free-dom indeed.