Spinoff vs Wholly Owned Subsidiary

[Soul Binder]

So at start of current game I went on a buying spree of other companies mainly for purpose of quickly adding factory space.
A couple of the Marques I almost immediately sold off, others I'm using for my own type branding i.e. economy cars, high end luxury cars, trucks and utility vehicles, mid level sport/performance etc. however still have more Marques than I want to manage directly.
Still have 100% ownership of my company and no plans to run an IPO as plenty of capital still on hand with no loans/bonds to pay on.
Rather than sell currently unutilized Marques or discontinue them I'm thinking of either turning them into Wholly Owned subsidiaries or Spinofffs and getting them started with some of my smaller factories that I no longer need.
Question is which would be better route to take and why?
Also I know from an earlier abortive game that Wholly Owned Subsidiaries can be absorbed back into main corporate holdings at any time for a price allowing me to bail them out of trouble or take back direct control if I decide I have a use for that Marque after all. What about Spinoffs can they be bought back into corporate holdings or do they get treated same as other AI companies that may resist acquisition?
By the way not a business type irl so much of the financial workings are difficult to decipher make best use of. I do understand simple things like my company is spending $XXX every month total and I'm getting $XXX revinue from all sources every month so either making money or losing money. Stuff like settings for stocks I've bought have me scratching my head as to what they mean to that bottom line equation.

[Eric.B]

If you own 100% of your company, then a spin off would be almost the same thing as a wholly owned subsidiary.

When you do a spinoff, share holders of your company will get an equal stake in the new company. For example, if the public owns 40% of your company. They will own 40% of the new company. The recent spin off of Ferrari from Fiat is a good example of this. (Although it wasn't a equal stake.)

When you do a wholly owned subsidiary, your company maintains 100% ownership of the subsidiary irregardless of the amount of shares the public owns of you. This means the subsidiary will operate completely separate from your company, it'll do its own thing, but it is till a part of your company. Real world examples would be something like Jaguar and Tata where Tata management doesn't have much involvement in how Jaguar operates. But Tata owns them 100%.

With a spinoff, it's a separate company that (in your case) you just have 100% of shares of. As such it can go out of business. If you had less than 100%, you could be sued for stripping the company if you set the dividends (paying you money) to high. If you have less than 50%+1, you could lose the company if they decide to merge with someone, etc.

With a subsidiary, it is part of your company that just operates separately. Means you assume their debts when they go out of business. You can also strip as much from the company via dividends (paying you money) as you want. Etc

[Soul Binder]

Thanks for reply
Looks like a subsidiary is way to go for me unless I'm concerned about them accrueing a very large debt and going out of business.
Are there any plans for making rebadging cars faster and easier than doing a new trim/generation of a vehicle and only changing the assigned Marque and name?
Would like to be able to give a Subsidiary a couple models to start them off with but don't want to neccissarily create unique models for them or lose access to a design because they are only division with a version.
I've got a number of larger factories now and would prefer to consolidate more production in them while removing the 2-4 line factories, hence my interrest in creating a subsidiary or spinnoff.

[Eric.B]

Originally posted by Soul Binder:

Thanks for reply
Are there any plans for making rebadging cars faster and easier than doing a new trim/generation of a vehicle and only changing the assigned Marque and name?

Nope, no plans for any mass rebadging system. Since most rebadges in the real world use different bodies to begin designs with.

I've got a number of larger factories now and would prefer to consolidate more production in them while removing the 2-4 line factories, hence my interrest in creating a subsidiary or spinnoff.

Be sure to add the spinoff company as "owner" of those smaller factories before you spin the company off. (And check the include factory box before you spin them.)

[Soul Binder]

Already have the factories and branches in those cities assigned to the Marques I'm planning to turn into subsidiaries.
Just waiting for my production numbers to stabalize a little so have least ammount of impact on remainder of factories when I do make the move.
Also want to make sure that it doesn't drop my tech skills below level for some new technologies that are about to be unlocked year wise.