The company's purpose is to acquire, sell, hold and manage participations in companies in Switzerland and abroad, and to carry out related financing and investment transactions, as well as to coordinate technical and administrative activities. Furthermore, the company's purpose is to acquire, manage, exploit and transfer licenses, trademarks, patents and license fees. The company may establish branches in Switzerland and abroad, participate in other companies in Switzerland and abroad, take over representations and enter into all transactions and conclude contracts that may be suitable to promote the purpose of the company or that are directly or indirectly related to it. The company may also provide 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 securities 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 under preferential conditions without interest, excluding the company's profit motive and assuming cluster risks.