LEX Vehicle Leasing and Hyundai contributed substantially to Lex Service Plc's 22% pre-tax profits surge in 1996, up to £51.4 million. The UK's largest contract hire company Lex Vehicle Leasing - jointly owned by Lex and Lombard - achieved record profits last year of £37.5 million, up 16% year on year from £32.1 million in 1995. This coincided with an increase in its fleet size, up 11,000 units to 80,000.

A spokesman attributed profits to the buoyancy of the used car market, with secondhand prices remaining strong throughout the year, and he predicted similar conditions until August 1997.

Lex Vehicle Leasing is looking to increase the number of drivers using One Call to around 70% of its fleet, from the current 40%, in order to track better the level of service delivered to drivers by One Call outlets. Hyundai reported profits of £4.4 million, reversing losses of £2.4 million in 1995, with sales up 36%. Lex has written off £20 million of goodwill to reserves in anticipation of buying International Motors' 49.9% interest in the Hyundai importership by the year 2000.