CINCINNATI (AP) - An ailing U.S. economy offers a shot in the arm for Convergys Corp., the outsourcing company's chief executive says.

David F. Dougherty is near the end of his first year as CEO of the Cincinnati-based company, whose shares have plummeted in that time. But Dougherty said in an Associated Press interview that business is already picking up as large U.S. companies look to cut costs amid a credit and housing crunch.

"I think we are well-positioned to potentially see an acceleration in outsourcing," Dougherty said. "We're starting to see some signs of that already, no surprise, in the financial services sector."

Convergys, a global leader in call-center, billing and other customer relations services, says it has two major contracts it hopes to close soon with financial services companies, among other possible new business coming its way.

"I remain steadfast in my belief that's an early indicator of new potential for increases in outsourcing," Dougherty said. "We're reasonably encouraged that we continue to see a downturn in the economy ... that potentially bodes well for us."

He said Convergys offers a large, well-established partner capable of taking on big outsourcing jobs.

"We're open for business," he said. "We're the guys you can count on in tough times."

However, some industry analysts remain cautious about the company for the near term.

"The Street needs to see tangible signs of fundamental progress, and we don't expect them until the second half of 2008 at the earliest," Kaufman Brothers analyst Karl Keirstead wrote after an analysts' session with Convergys executives last month.

"It's clear people are taking a kind of show-me, I'm from Missouri, view," Dougherty said of the analysts, adding that closing of the contracts he referred to has gone slower than planned.

Convergys hasn't identified publicly the companies it's negotiating with.

Convergys' major customers include AT&T Inc., General Motors Corp. and Comcast Corp., and the company says it has business with more than half of Fortune's 50 largest U.S. companies.

For its 2007 fiscal year, Convergys reported earnings rose 2 percent to $169.5 million, or $1.23 per share, over the prior year, and revenues grew 2 percent to $2.84 billion.

But Convergys' stock, which traded as high as $27.26 in late April 2007, tumbled more than 14 percent in one day last July after the company fell short of Wall Street expectations on second-quarter profits and sales and reported problems in implementing a major human-resources outsourcing contract.

That added doubts about the company's ability to build profits in its human-resource business. The company has also been hurt by the weaker dollar overseas.

Shares fell as low as $13.66 in recent months.

In a recent message to shareholders, who will have their annual meeting here April 22, Dougherty wrote that Convergys stock was trading at nearly the same level as when the company, which spun off from Cincinnati Bell, went public 10 years ago.

"I'm certainly not proud of that fact," Dougherty said. "We're going to get that fixed and corrected and provide a much better return to investors."

Dougherty said Convergys, with clients in 70 countries, is building business in Latin America, the Middle East, and other key emerging markets. The company also has been rapidly increasing operations in the Philippines, where it now has slightly more employees than its 12,000 in India, which had been Convergys' largest overseas employee presence.

Convergys recently acquired a Shanghai software company and expects to add operations in China.

Dougherty said with an increased sales force, new deals in the pipeline, and other opportunities to increase business, Convergys continues to expect 2008 earnings per share to grow to $1.31 to $1.36. He said the company has bought back nearly 10 million shares in the past year.

"So we've been very aggressive," he said. "We think it's a great value."