wabbitt...mountains out of molehills and chasing shadows!! There...

wabbitt...mountains out of molehills and chasing shadows!!

There are many reasons why companies choose to have separate (but wholly owned) legal entities and also a few reasons why they are compelled to have separate (but wholly owned) legal entities. Irrespective of whether it be by choice or compulsion, the consolidated financial reports of the parent company includes all their dealings (the hint being the word consolidated). If something can be buried within a subsidiary without disclosure (like your trite frequent flyer points example), it could be done just as beguilingly within the parent company.

An example of a compulsory reason for having a wholly owned subsidiary in the US (eg Accumulate Energy Alaska), is the requirement to be a domestically registered company. I think you will find that every single player on the North Slope is technically a US registered company, even if fully owned by an overseas outfit. The fact that 88 Energy has chosen to use different local registered subsidiaries for different projects (eg Regenerate for Yukon Gold and Captivate for Western Blocks) is probably to make it easy for joint venturing or sell-offs on a project specific basis.

I would be tempted to consider these reasons as being the more likely driver of the need to set-up subsidiaries, than a supposed desire to hide frequent flyer points!! Just sayin'.