American Can Co. Changes Name to Match New Image

American Can Co.’s five-year transformation from containers to financial services and specialty retailing culminated today when the concern announced it plans to change its 86-year-old name to Primerica Corp.

“In the past two or three years we have been asked by analysts and people in the business, ‘When are you going to change your name?’ ” American Can Chairman Gerald Tsai Jr. said.

“A lot of people were concerned that our name didn’t fit the business anymore.”

He said the new name combines the words prime and America. It is intended to convey the meanings of “first and foremost” with a hint of the company’s old name.

American Can transferred rights to its name to Triangle Industries Inc. when Triangle bought the packaging division in November for $600 million.