Abbey Healthcare Makes 2nd Stock Buyback : Finance: The $11.6-million deal gives the Costa Mesa home-care firm more control in its turnaround.

COSTA MESA — Abbey Healthcare Group Inc., one of Orange County’s largest home health-care agencies, said Monday that it has bought back more than a million of its shares owned by an institutional shareholder.

The purchase of 1.1 million shares of common stock owned by Toronto-based NWE Capital Corp., formerly VenTech Healthcare Corp., for $11.6 million, or $10.50 a share, marked the second time this year that Abbey Healthcare has bought out a major shareholder.

Chief Executive Timothy Aitken said that the stock was repurchased with proceeds from the sale of $86 million worth of convertible debentures in October. Abbey Healthcare and NWE Capital, which provides telecommunications services in Russia and had a 14% stake in the Costa Mesa company, negotiated the buyout earlier this year, when the price per share was much lower.

In July, Abbey Healthcare’s stock was trading as low as $9.50 a share on the NASDAQ market. On Monday, the stock closed at $24.25 a share, up $1.

Last summer, Abbey Healthcare repurchased 400,000 of its outstanding shares from Avon Products, the giant door-to-door cosmetics distributor.

The buybacks give Abbey Healthcare more of a say in its future as it continues to turn itself around. The company was loaded with debt in 1991 but now has a $25-million surplus, Aitken said.