LONDON: Education, media and publishing giant Pearson Group announced on Monday a planned merger between its publishing arm Penguin and German publisher Bertelsmann’s Random House to create a leading publishing organization.

Pearson and Bertelsmann have agreed to establish a joint venture named Penguin Random House, of which Bertelsmann will own a 53-percent stake and Pearson, 47 percent. Both must keep their shares in the venture for at least three years. The venture will have its headquarters in New York City.

Under the plan, the venture will exclude Bertelsmann’s trade publishing business in Germany and Pearson will retain rights to use the Penguin brand in education markets worldwide.

John Makinson, chairman and chief executive officer of Penguin, will be the venture’s chairman. Markus Dohle, the chief executive officer of Random House, will be its chief executive.

Penguin Random House is expected to seize 25 percent to 30 percent of the global consumer publishing market. Pearson and Bertelsmann hope to cope with the electronic book, or e-book, era through a combination of their firms.

The two sides believe that the combined organization will have a stronger platform and greater resources to invest in new digital publishing models and high-growth emerging markets, and they will also save their money on joint warehousing, distribution and printing.

The merger is expected to be completed in the second half of next year, and Robin Freestone, Pearson’s chief financial officer, said that the deal would be approved.

Random House was the biggest English-language publisher in the United States and Britain in the first nine months of 2012, while Penguin has maintained a strong presence in fast-growing developing markets.

In 2011, Random House reported revenues $2.2 billion (1.7 billion euros) and an operating profit of $239 million (185 million euros), while Penguin reported revenues of $1.6 billion (1 billion pounds) and an operating profit of $178 million (111 million pounds).