At the start of this year, when we listed the top 25 leasing firms judged on figures from the end of 2008, the merger of Lex and Autolease, while announced, hadn't taken place. The result was that Lex still sat at the top of the ranking.

Now, the two firms have merged, or at least have a single name over the door - Lex Autolease. It's not surprising this firm is still at the top of the chart, but what is an eye-opener is the level of loss suffered through the merger.

Going on 2008 figures, if there had been no loss during the merger the new Lex Autolease brand would be operating a fleet of more than 400,000 vehicles. However, the merger has seen a 16% loss to give a risk-exposed fleet size of more than 337,000 vehicles.

At first glance this looks high, but if compared with the average loss in fleet size for the top 20, which sits at 10%, it no longer looks worrying and marries with Lex Autolease managing director Nigel Stead's expectations.

Speaking exclusively to BusinessCar at the start of the year about the outlook for the merger, he said his priority was to keep customers happy during it.