(Bloomberg) -- Stellantis NV, the carmaker formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and PSA Group, gained in its first day of trading after completing a more than two-year effort to form one of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers.

The shares climbed as much as 7.7% in Milan, where the ticker STLA replaced Fiat Chrysler’s symbol. The stock also gained in Paris, where the company listed in place of Peugeot SA.

The debuts are the culmination of talks then-PSA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares initiated with his counterpart at Fiat Chrysler in late 2018. The 62-year-old will lead an automotive behemoth with roughly 400,000 employees and 14 brands into an uncertain future, where cars increasingly run off of batteries and software and the combustion engine meets its demise.

Read: An Auto CEO Much of Detroit Doesn’t Know Takes Over a New Empire

Fiat Chrysler and PSA were worth a combined 39.4 billion euros ($47.6 billion) at the close of trading last week, a fraction of the $783 billion market capitalization of Tesla Inc., the world’s most valuable automaker.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

“Stellantis faces a mixed outlook as U.S. stimulus plans may buoy Chrysler vs. a more uncertain outlook for Peugeot in Europe. Former PSA CEO Carlos Tavares takes the helm and, similar to his handling of PSA’s takeover of Opel in 2017, we anticipate a new strategy in the first 100 days of his stewardship. All regions face a difficult 1H amid continued lockdowns.”

-- Michael Dean, BI automotive analyst

Click here to read the report

Fiat Chrysler and PSA have estimated they will save about 5 billion euros a year by converging vehicles and powertrains, jointly procuring parts and integrating sales and marketing functions.

“You can trust our management in our execution capability,” Tavares said Monday during an opening-bell ceremony. “We are here to get the job done.”

John Elkann, the leader of the billionaire Agnelli family and chairman of Stellantis, was for years along with late former CEO Sergio Marchionne one of the most outspoken proponents of consolidation for the auto industry as its manufacturers spend billions on electrification and autonomous-driving technology.

“We have the scale, the resources, the diversity and the knowhow to successfully capture the opportunities of this new era in transportation,” he said.

(Updates with Bloomberg Intelligence commentary after the fourth paragraph.)

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