Hughes Electronics Expects 30% Revenue Gain

El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics Corp., a unit of General Motors Corp., said it expects revenue this year to rise by 30% to $7.3 billion, led by sales at its DirecTV satellite-television service. Hughes expects DirecTV, the No. 1 U.S. satellite-TV provider, to have $4.8 billion in revenue this year, it said in a regulatory filing. The company had $5.2 billion in revenue in the first nine months of this year, and it expects revenue to increase by 20% to 25% in the next five years. DirecTV, which accounts for 77% of Hughes’ sales, had 9 million customers at the end of the third quarter. DirecTV’s sales have been fueled by the introduction of local channels and by expansion in both rural and urban areas, Hughes has said. Hughes expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be more than $500 million in 2000, the filing said. The company is expected to have a fourth-quarter loss of 24 cents a share, the average estimate of three analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. It didn’t give a profit projection in the filing. Shares fell 90 cents to close at $31.50 on the NYSE.