TWO of the world's largest publishers, Random House Inc and Penguin Group, expect to complete a planned merger next month.

Parent companies Bertelsmann and Pearson said yesterday that the merger had been cleared by anti-trust authorities in China, among the last countries to approve. The new publishing house, Penguin Random House, will be 53 percent controlled by Bertelsmann and 47 percent by Pearson.

Penguin Random House will include top-selling authors such as Dan Brown and Ken Follett and a vast back catalog.

The announcement came on the same day that a trial began over US government allegations that Apple and five publishers, including Penguin, conspired to rig e-book prices. All five publishers have settled.