NEW YORK (Reuters) - Life insurance and loan group Conseco Inc. (NYSE:CNC - news) said on Monday it would cut 2,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its overall work force, over the next 21 months as it farms out some call-center and back-office services to India.

At the same time, Conseco said it would buy the firm providing the services in India, exlService (Exl), for $52.6 million in stock.

Carmel, Ind.-based Conseco said its chief executive, Gary Wendt, who owns 20.3 percent of Exl along with his wife, will receive $9.75 million from the deal.

The board-approved transaction is expected to save more than $30 million in annual costs, and should produce about 11 cents a share in pre-tax profits as early as next year, Conseco said.

Labor costs in India are far cheaper than in the United States.

As part of a drive to shore up Conseco's finances, Wendt is in the process of selling off $2.0 billion in the firm's assets and cutting debt.

He took over as Conseco's chief executive last June with a mandate to turn around the struggling company, whose results have been dragged down by problems from its $6 billion acquisition of loan firm Green Tree Financial in 1998.

Wendt was part of the group that founded Exl in 1999, shortly after he quit his job as head of GE Capital, the financial services arm of General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - news).

Wendt, however, will not receive any payment from the Exl deal until Conseco realizes savings that equal the cost of the purchase.

Exl currently employs 315 people, mostly in Delhi, India, Conseco said.

Conseco shares finished 22 cents lower at $17 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, not far from a 52-week high of $18.60. The stock has a 52-week low of $4.50.

Personal Note: The reason I made this a separate posting instead of in the layoffs section is because this is part of a bigger issue. Our recession gives corporate america the perfect opportunity to export jobs to countries where wages are a lot cheaper. Our factories are being shut down one at a time because we can't compete with $.25 an hour for unskilled labor. We will NEVER see unemployment as low as it was in this boom period again.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@altavista.com), April 23, 2001