Kraft Foods to shift listing to Nasdaq

Nasdaq OMX Group, which has come in for intense scrutiny over its handling of the Facebook IPO, is poaching a blue-chip company from its rival despite criticism of its shoddy handling of the social network's debut.

According to Kraft Foods, it intends to transfer its stock listing to the Nasdaq from NYSE Euronext's New York Stock Exchange, effective 26 June. The maker of Oreo cookies said the move was intended to leverage greater cost efficiencies, while providing visibility advantages for the company's iconic brands.

The company would retain its ticker symbol, KFT, but only until it completed a planned breakup. Kraft would keep its faster-growing global snacks business under a new company Mondelez International, ticker MDLZ, while its spun-off North American grocery business that would keep the Kraft Foods name but trade under ticker KRFT.

However, stocks would list on the Nasdaq when the breakup was complete, and the KFT symbol would be retired.

Shareholders approved the new name on 23 May and at the time, chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld said, Mondelez had an appealing international sound that perfectly evoked the idea of a 'delicious world which was the essence of the company's global snacks company.

The split was first announce in August 2011.

NYSE and Nasdaq have been locked in a battle for listings for years, and Kraft has become the latest company to switch from one or the other. Earlier this year, TD Ameritrade switched its listing from Nasdaq to NYSE.