Was VTEC the right choice?

[AndyNLondon]

Stagecoach in their corporate pages always consider VTEC as one of their own and VTWC as a joint venture.

That may simply be down to the legal definition of a subsidiary company:

a company is a "subsidiary" of another company, its "holding company", if that other company:

• holds a majority of the voting rights in it, or
• is a member of it and has the right to appoint or remove a majority of its board of directors, or
• is a member of it and controls alone, pursuant to an agreement with other members, a majority of the voting rights in it, or if it is a subsidiary of a company that is itself a subsidiary of that other company.

If the voting rights match the ownership percentages (VTEC 90%/10% Stagecoach/Virgin, VTWC 49%/51%) then the first bullet point makes VTEC a subsidiary of Stagecoach and VTWC a subsidiary of Virgin.