Lex Autolease was created in May 2009 from the merger of

HBOS HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank ...

-owned Lex Vehicle Leasing with Lloyds TSB Autolease, and is the currently the largest

vehicle leasing A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), waterc ...

business in the UK, with a fleet of about 385,000 vehicles. One in every thirty new cars sold in the UK is through Lex Autolease.

History

The company can trace its origins back to 1959, when both Lex and Autolease were established. Lex was established in the 1920s and in 1959 it acquired British Colonial Motors, which allowed it to enter the contract hire business. In 1969, it acquired Controlled Cost Motoring, established Lombard Contract Hire in 1983 and acquired Fleetdrive in 1988. Autolease was established in 1959 by

Britax Britax () is a British manufacturer of childcare products including car seats, pushchairs and high chairs. History The company began making automotive safety equipment and accessories in 1938, as well as importing car and motorcycle accessorie ...

, which also owned Bristol Street Motors. Through mergers, a company called Lex Vehicle Leasing emerged. By 2005, it was owned by Aviva as part of their

RAC plc RAC Limited (The RAC) is a British automotive services company headquartered in Walsall, West Midlands. Its principal services are roadside assistance and general insurance, and its subsidiaries include RAC Motoring Services Ltd, RAC Financial ...

company. From 2006 to 2009, it was owned by

. Following the acquisition of HBOS by

Lloyds TSB Group Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank w ...

, which had owned Autolease since 2000, the new

Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank w ...

merged the two operations into the new Lex Autolease. At the time of the merger Lex was carrying a debt of 2.4 billion. In the first decade of the 21st century, Lex lost a number of large contracts such as HSBC Vehicle Finance, Ford Business Partner and

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

. In 2014, Lex opened a new multi-million pound

car supermarket A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive mainten ...

and vehicle processing centre in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

, which created 30 jobs. However, within two years the centre had closed.

References

External links

* Financial services companies established in 2009 Car rental companies of the United Kingdom Leasing companies Lloyds Banking Group {{UK-company-stub

History

See also

References

External links