Shares of Mexican homebuilder Urbi jump ten-fold on delisting plan

Shares of Mexican homebuilder Urbi leaped by more than 10 times on Friday, an unprecedented jump as the company prepares for a buyback to delist from Mexico's largest stock exchange.

Urbi URBI, typically a low-liquidity stock, closed at 90.02 Mexican pesos ($5.37) a share on Friday, up from 8.41 pesos at closing Thursday.

According to LSEG data going back to 2004, Urbi had never seen such a gain day-over-day. The company went public in 2002.

Just 6,489 shares in Urbi traded hands on Friday, the most since last August.

At the end of April, the homebuilder said that shareholders had approved the buyback of outstanding shares at 111.88 pesos each in order to exit the stock market. The purchase is set to take place at the end of May.

Mexico's main stock exchange has bled business in recent years, with former giants such as airline Aeromexico, dairy producer Grupo Lala and retailer Grupo Sanborns taking their operations private.

In November, Mexican lawmakers passed a market reform aimed at loosening regulations for companies to go public, speeding up the process and reducing the costs involved.

($1 = 16.7526 Mexican pesos)