Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot just announced a new name for their merging companies: 'Stellantis'

• Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot are continuing with their merger activities, with the deal slated to close in early 2021.
• The companies announced that the name of the new overall corporate entity would be "Stellantis."
• The merger would be a 50-50 deal, with current Groupe PSA CEO Carlos Tavares taking over as CEO of the combined companies.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France's Peugeot jointly announced on Wednesday that the new corporate entity formed from their forthcoming 50-50 merger would be called "Stellantis."

"STELLANTIS," the carmakers said in a statement, using all-caps for the name, "is rooted in the Latin verb 'stello' meaning 'to brighten with stars.' It draws inspiration from this new and ambitious alignment of storied automotive brands and strong company cultures that in coming together are creating one of the new leaders in the next era of mobility while at the same time preserving all the exceptional value and the values of its constituent parts."

FCA and Peugeot (PSA) announced their intention to merge in late 2019, after FCA and Renault abandoned a tie-up amid a scandal around former Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on allegations of financial malfeasance and later fled to Lebanon.

FCA has been pursuing various merger opportunities for years. When the late Sergio Marchionne was CEO, he courted General Motor's CEO Mary Barra in 2015, only to be rebuffed.

However, the FCA-Peugeot combination, a deal now expected to close in early 2021, would fulfill Marchionne's ambition of extracting the Agnelli family from the car business.

The Angelli family's stake, overseen by John Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli, amounts to about a third of FCA. Elkann is CEO of Exor, the family's holding company and investment entity. With Marchionne, Elkann rescued Fiat and then proceeded to concoct FCA, a bundle of brands. The idea was to improve the value of everything, then spin off the pieces.

Ultimately, an FCA-PSA merger would be about PSA taking over, with CEO Carlos Tavares running the combined, $50 billion global giant.

Stellantis, as FCA and Peugeot noted, would be used "exclusively at the Group level, as a Corporate brand." The companies' respective brands would remain unchanged. FCA and Peugeot have been working with the Publicis Group on the new overarching identity.