MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) , Russia's fourth-largest steel maker by output, said on Friday it had completed the all-cash purchase of U.S. hot-rolled steel producer Beta Steel for $350 million.
The purchase price was reduced by $50 million from the $400 million agreed in September, NLMK said in a statement, and was financed from the company's existing cash funds.
Steel makers in Russia, the world's fourth-largest producer, have acquired around 10 percent of U.S. steel-making capacity in the last few years, spending billions of dollars from their record profits betting on steel demand in North America.
Beta Steel, which is being bought from a group of private shareholders, operates an electric arc furnace melt shop with 700,000 tonnes of annual capacity and a hot-strip rolling mill with capacity to roll 1.1 million tonnes a year.
The company's revenues were $324 million in 2007. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBOTDA) totalled $21 million.
Novolipetsk is controlled by billionaire Vladimir Lisin.

(Reporting by Robin Paxton, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: NLMK/ tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com cmr

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