July 29 (Reuters) - German drug packaging firm Gerresheimer

said on Wednesday it was selling two plastic packaging

units, including the U.S business Centor, to private equity

group Apax Funds for €1.5 billion ($1.71 billion) including

debt.

The sale follows internal investigations into Gerresheimer's

accounting practices, which delayed its financial results and

led to its removal from Deutsche Boerse's SDAX small-cap index

earlier this year. Germany's financial regulator, BaFin, also

opened audits of the company's financial statements.

The two packaging units generated combined revenue of

approximately €570 million last year and employ around 2,400

people, Gerresheimer said.

The company started the Centor sale process in February as

it sought to improve its capital structure. The sale also

includes the global Primary Packaging Plastics unit,

Gerresheimer said on Wednesday.

"Gerresheimer will use the expected cash inflows to

significantly optimise its capital and financing structure by

meaningfully decreasing its leverage," the company said in a

statement.

As part of the deal, Apax will acquire Gerresheimer's 15

production sites for primary plastic packaging in nine countries

and Centor's U.S. production site.

The drug packaging firm rejected a takeover bid from U.S.

rival Silgan ( SLGN ) in April, choosing to focus on resolving

its accounting problems and selling its U.S. subsidiary Centor,

Reuters had reported.

Gerresheimer said last month that its internal accounting

review was complete, though its assessment of possible damages

claims was still ongoing.

The sale of Centor is expected to close by the end of

financial year 2026 and the global Primary Packaging Plastics

business sale in the first half of 2027.

($1 = 0.8776 euros)

(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank

Dhaniwala and Subhranshu Sahu)