UPDATE 1-Kenya's Equity Bank H1 profit down 15 pct

* H1 pretax 2.7 bln shillings vs 3.1 bln last year

* CEO says drop in pretax profits due to one-off item

* Adjusted for one-off item, H1 pretax grew 35 pct

(Adds CEO quote, background)

NAIROBI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Kenya's Equity Bank (EQTY.NR) on Thursday posted a 15 percent drop in pretax profit to 2.7 billion kenyan shillings ($35.29 million) for the first half of 2009, from 3.1 billion shillings last year.

Ranked the sixth-biggest bank by assets in east Africa's biggest economy, the bank's CEO James Mwangi attributed the drop to a one-off item in last year's first half.

"Last year we had a non-repeat item. We drove 45 percent of the Safaricom IPO business," Mwangi told investors.

Stripping out the one-off item, he said pretax profit grew 35 percent to 2.7 billion from 2.0 billion shillings.

The bank, which specialises in rural customers and holds more than half of all accounts in Kenya, acquired Uganda Microfinance Limited through a joint cash and share deal in 2008 and turned it into a bank.

It began trading on the Uganda Securities Exchange ALSI.UG in June. The bank is now turning its eye towards South Sudan where it is launching a bank soon.

Equity has also started an insurance agency, shares custodial services at the Nairobi bourse and has recruited 10 investment bankers for its Equity Investment Bank. ($1=76.50 Kenyan Shilling) (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; writing by Wangui Kanina; editing by Simon Jessop)