The Company's purpose is the marketing, promotion, research, development, and manufacturing of tobacco products. The Company may also, in Switzerland and abroad: establish branches or subsidiaries, acquire interests in, and more generally participate in, all enterprises and entities having a direct or indirect relation to its purpose; carry out, either for its own account or for the account of third parties, all financial, commercial, movable or immovable property operations (excluding operations subject to the authorization regime according to the Federal Law on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad (LFAIE)) directly or indirectly related to its purpose or likely to promote it, in particular, when the law permits, acquire, manage, operate and sell real estate; and grant loans or other direct or indirect financing to its direct or indirect subsidiaries as well as to any other company in the group, including its direct or indirect shareholders and their direct or indirect subsidiaries, and may also guarantee in any manner their obligations to third parties, notably by means of pledges, assignments or transfers for security or guarantees of any nature, remunerated or not, even if these guarantees and securities are exclusively for the interests of the direct or indirect associates or of the other associates of the group. Furthermore, it may operate or associate with the companies mentioned above in cash compensations/net cash centralizations (cash pooling), including periodic balance adjustments (balancing). Finally, it may act as a guarantor to creditors for debts incurred by its direct or indirect subsidiaries as well as by any other company in the group, including its direct or indirect shareholders and their direct or indirect subsidiaries.