UPDATE 1-Gulfmark Offshore Q2 profit beats Street, shares up

* Q2 EPS $1.38 vs est, ex-items, of $1.17

* Q2 revenue up 28 percent

* Sees tax rate of 4 percent in H2

* Sees dry dock expenses of about $5 mln in both Q3, Q4

* Shares up as much as 5 percent (New throughout)

By Shradhha Sharma

BANGALORE, July 27 (Reuters) - Shares of marine transportation services provider GulfMark Offshore Inc (GLF.N) rose as much as 5 percent, a day after it beat analysts' second-quarter profit estimates on lower dry dock expenses and tax rate, and cut its tax rate view for the remainder of 2009.

"We started the year guiding less than 12 percent and we are currently guiding 4 percent... Rate reduction represents real cash savings, not one time or special items," Chief Financial Officer Quintin Kneen said on a conference call with analysts.

Kneen said the reduction in tax-rate outlook was driven by a shift in the company's pre-tax profitability from a high tax-rate region like the Gulf of Mexico to areas of operation with lower taxes.

"They basically paid very nominal taxes during the quarter. It was 0.1 percent and we were looking for 7 percent," RBC Capital Markets analyst Victor Marchon said by phone.

Shares of the company rose to touch a high of $31.90, but lost most of their early gains to trade up 58 cents at $31.04 Monday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.

Q2 PROFIT BEATS STREET

GulfMark, which provides transportation services to oil companies, reported earnings of $1.38 a share, down from $2 a share a year earlier.

Net income included gains of 3 cents related to a vessel sale and another 3 cents from foreign currency translation. Revenue rose 28 percent to $104.7 million, boosted by GulfMark's acquisition of GulfMark Americas in July 2008, which contributed revenue of $27.9 million during the quarter.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings, before special items, of $1.17 a share, on revenue of $107.9 million, according to Reuters Estimates. [ID:nWEN1325]

"A lot of that beat was due to lower dry docking costs and their tax rate was practically zero. The rest was stronger results at their North Sea division," Jefferies and Co analyst Judson Bailey said by phone.

Houston-based GulfMark said dry dock expenses for the quarter were about $2.6 million, lower than an earlier forecast of $5 million.

"The difference from our previous estimate is due to some changes to particular vessels we chose to dry dock," CFO Kneen said on the call.

The company also forecast dry dock expenses of about $5 million each for the third and fourth quarters. Dry dock expenses are incurred for the repair and maintenance of a company's vessels. [ID:nWNBB3284] (Editing by Anil D'Silva)