Warrington-based real estate investment trust (REIT) Assura plc, which invests in general practitioner surgery buildings and primary care centres, on Thursday published a trading update for its first quarter to June 30, 2018.

“We continued to make progress in the first quarter, increasing the size of the pipeline by £73 million to £225 million, made up of acquisitions of £162 million and £63 million of developments,” said Assura.

“In addition to growing the pipeline we completed the acquisition of six medical centres and two developments at a combined cost of £23.0 million.  

“The additions have a combined passing rent of £1.2 million and a weighted average unexpired lease length of 19.9 years.”

Assura said it now owns 525 medical centres with a total annualised rent roll of £92.3 million, with growth in the financial year to date driven primarily by acquisitions.

Assura has a stock market value of around £1.3 billion and is a constituent of the FTSE 250.

As at March 31, 2018, Assura’s property portfolio was valued at £1.733 billion.

The firm has agreed an additional £100 million unsecured revolving facility with Barclays Bank plc and HSBC plc on the same terms as an existing facility, taking Assura’s overall revolving facilities to £400 million.

As at June 30, 2018, gross debt stood at £510 million with undrawn facilities of £250 million.

Assura CEO Jonathan Murphy said: “We have continued to deploy capital in the first quarter and identify new opportunities to grow the pipeline which can all be funded from current facilities.

“We remain confident in the outlook for the year.”