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WARSAW, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Asseco Poland, Europe's No.5 software group, surprised with a net profit rise of 7.3 percent year-on-year to 110 million zlotys ($38.1 million) in the third quarter, the company said on Friday.
Analysts polled by Reuters expected the company's bottom line to fall 8 percent to 94 million zlotys compared with 102 million reported for the third quarter in 2009.
Synergies within the company, which has recently been on a buying spree, helped it to increase revenues to 739 million zlotys in July to September 2010 from 697 million in the same period in 2009.
The last in the line of purchases was its Israeli rival Formula Systems, which Asseco agreed to buy for up to $145 million to tap markets in Israel, Canada, Japan and the U.S.
The company's increasingly diversified nature helped it weather the recent downturn but the slowdown has put a curb on margins, especially at Asseco's foreign outlets.
Concerns the company would not deliver on lofty expectations in the longer run have pushed its shares 16 percent lower this year compared with a 14 percent rise on Warsaw's main index. (Reporting by Adrian Krajewski, writing by Kuba Jaworowski; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)