The company's purpose is to participate directly or indirectly, finance, acquire and dispose of domestic and foreign industrial, commercial, service, intellectual property and financial companies or other businesses. The company may establish branches and subsidiaries in Switzerland and abroad, take over representations and engage in any business activity and conclude contracts of any kind that may be beneficial to the company's purpose or are directly or indirectly related to it. The company may acquire, hold, manage, encumber and sell real estate in Switzerland and abroad, except for transactions prohibited by the Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad (BewG). The company is part of a group and may consider the interests of the group in pursuing its corporate purpose. In particular, the company may grant loans and other direct or indirect financing to its direct and indirect subsidiaries and third parties, including its direct and indirect shareholders and their direct and indirect subsidiaries, including within the framework of cash pooling agreements (including zero balancing), and provide collateral of any kind for the liabilities of these parties, including by way of pledges or fiduciary transfers of the company's assets or guarantees of any kind. This also applies without consideration, on preferential terms, without interest, to the exclusion of the company's profit motive and with the assumption of cluster risks.