UPDATE 1-Assura posts H1 pretax profit; confident of future

* Says pharmacy revenue strong in H1

* Strong rental growth across property portfolio in H1

* Says to separate GP business from main co

* To focus on core property and pharmacy businesses

* Net debt of 224 mln stg at end of H1 (Adds details)

Nov 26 (Reuters) - British healthcare firm Assura Group Ltd (AGRP.L) swung to a first-half pretax profit on Thursday, aided by strong pharmacy revenue and said it was trading in line with its own expectations.

The UK's biggest private owner of general practitioner (GP) provider services said it was looking to separate its GP provider companies business, which was expected to make losses and consume further cash, from the group to accelerate prospects of resuming dividend payments.

For the six months ended Sept. 30, the company reported a pretax profit of 4 million pounds ($6.68 million), compared with a loss of 40.8 million pounds in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 20 percent to 26.8 million pounds.

Assura had net debt of 224 million pounds at the end of the first six months, compared with 213 million pounds as of March 31. ($1=.5987 Pound) (Reporting by Aditi Samajpati in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan) ((aditi.samajpati@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 4135 5800; Reuters Messaging: aditi.samajpati.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))