The company's purpose is to acquire, manage and utilize participations in domestic and foreign companies, as well as to provide related consulting, financing, management, planning and coordination services. The company may establish branches in Switzerland and abroad, participate in other companies in Switzerland and abroad, assume representations and enter into all transactions and conclude contracts that may serve to promote the purpose of the company or are directly or indirectly related thereto. Furthermore, the company may grant direct or indirect financing to its direct or indirect subsidiaries and third parties, including its direct or indirect shareholders and their direct or indirect subsidiaries, and provide collateral of all kinds for its own liabilities and those of other companies (including its direct or indirect subsidiaries and third parties, including its direct or indirect shareholders and their direct or indirect subsidiaries), including by way of pledges on or fiduciary transfers of the company's assets or guarantees of any kind, whether remunerated or not. In addition, it may engage in liquidity balancing/concentration of net liquidity (cash pooling) with the aforementioned companies or join such a system, including periodic account balancing (zero balancing). This also applies to preferential conditions without interest, excluding the company's profit motive and assuming cluster risks.