In this question are given two statements I and II. These statements may be either independent causes or may be effects of independent causes or a common cause. One of those statements may be the effect of the other statement. Read both the statements and. decide which of the given answer choice correctly depicts the relationship between these two statements. Statement I: Company ABC, a leading automobile company in country G has decided to merge all its subsidiary companies into the parent company last week. Statement II: Company XYZ, a subsidiary of automobile company ABC, has opened five new branches in country F in the previous financial year.

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Step-by-step reasoning:

1. Denote the statements as $I$ and $II$ for clarity: $I$ = "ABC merged its subsidiaries into the parent last week"; $II$ = "XYZ, a subsidiary of ABC, opened five new branches in country F in the previous financial year."

2. Compare context and timing: $I$ describes a corporate restructuring decision (a merger) occurring "last week" in country G; $II$ describes a market-expansion activity (branch openings) carried out by a subsidiary in the previous financial year in country F. The events differ in purpose (restructuring vs expansion), location (country G vs country F), and timing (recent vs earlier).

3. Assess causal linkage: There is no stated mechanism or evidence that the branch openings by $II$ caused the parent-company merger in $I$, nor that the merger directly caused the earlier branch openings. The differences in objectives, places, and non-overlapping time frames indicate each event likely arose from its own internal drivers (e.g., strategic consolidation, regulatory or tax reasons for the merger; market opportunity or local growth strategy for branch openings).

4. Conclusion: Because each statement plausibly results from separate, unrelated corporate decisions (independent causes) and no causal connection between $I$ and $II$ is implied, both statements are best viewed as effects of independent causes.

FINAL_ANSWER: e

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