A trust is... well I don't have to go into that now.
What matters is that a trust created a single, central management team.
And that team directed the activities of what otherwise still appeared to
be independent companies.This new...uh...legal entity worked so well that at on
controlled 90% of the country's oil refineries.
中间那句
有点不懂the activities of what otherwise 是要转折的用意吗?

我都是把它理解成“本来”的意思,就是如果没有前述情况某人事物本来应该是blah blah之类的