The company's purpose is to acquire, manage and dispose of participations in companies in Switzerland and abroad. The company may establish subsidiaries and branches in Switzerland and abroad. The company may acquire, hold and dispose of real estate. The company may also carry out all commercial, financial and other activities that are directly or indirectly related to the company's purpose. The company may conduct investment and lending transactions of any kind, provide guarantees, grant direct or indirect financing to group companies or third parties, including their direct or indirect shareholders and their direct or indirect subsidiaries, and provide collateral of any kind for liabilities of such other companies, including by way of pledges or fiduciary transfers of the company's assets or guarantees of any kind, whether against payment or not. Furthermore, 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), also under preferential conditions without interest, excluding the company's profit motive and assuming cluster risks.