The Company's purpose is to participate in other companies, particularly in the chemical, pharmaceutical, para-pharmaceutical, veterinary and related sectors. In general, the Company may carry out any financial and commercial operation necessary or useful for achieving its corporate purpose. The Company may establish branches and subsidiaries in Switzerland and abroad, hold participations in other companies, represent third parties, and engage in any commercial activity and conclude any type of agreement that may promote the Company's purpose or be directly or indirectly related to it. The Company may acquire, hold, manage, encumber, and sell real estate in Switzerland and abroad, excluding transactions prohibited by the Federal Law on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Foreigners (LAFE). The Company is part of a Group and, in pursuing its corporate purpose, may take into account the interests of the Group. The Company may, in particular, grant loans or other direct or indirect financing, including those within the framework of cash pooling agreements (including zero balancing), to companies directly or indirectly controlled and to third parties, including its direct or indirect shareholders and companies directly or indirectly controlled by them; to guarantee the obligations contracted by them, the Company may provide guarantees or collateral of any kind, including pledges on the Company's assets or fiduciary assignments of the same. All this may occur even without consideration, on preferential terms, without interest, by waiving the Company's profit-making purpose and/or assuming significant risks (cluster risks).