Last week OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed in a forum post that smartphone maker would be further integrating with fellow Chinese brand Oppo. The confirmation came as a bit of a surprise to many, given that the two brands are already intertwined in various aspects.

It was also unclear how the structure between the two would work moving forward, but newly leaked documents seem to shed a bit more light.

To that end, documents obtained by noted leaker Evan Blass, explain that Oppo will be falling under the OnePlus brand.

“With the integration, OnePlus becomes a brand within Oppo, however will continue to function as an independent entity,” the aforementioned memo reads.

“With the merging of both the firms, we will have more resources at hand to create even better products… It will also allow us to be more efficient in our operations,” it adds.

Such a relationship is nothing new when dealing with two highly integrated Chinese smartphone brands, with Honor falling under the Huawei banner before both parties decided to split as a result of continued pressure from US sanctions against the latter.

The memo adds that Lau will be taking up the role of chief product officer at Oppo, as he will oversee product development at both firms, which is a little puzzling if we’re honest. As such, it remains to be seen if both brands will be treated equally, especially when it comes to innovative solutions and features on flagship or higher end devices.

Also unclear at this stage is how this will impact plans for the brands in regions where both have operations, of which South Africa is one.

For now, Oppo remains the more visible of the two, but whether that will change in future is difficult to determine as no official statement following this leaked document has been made by either party at the time of writing.

As such we are left with more questions than answers at this stage.