GE, Cisco, Airbus and others call for Britain to stay in EU-FT

May 18 (Reuters) - The heads of GE, Cisco, Mars, EMC (Taiwan OTC: 5299.TWO - news) and Airbus, as well as Michael Bloomberg, have signed a plea for Britain to stay in the EU, according to the Financial Times.

Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE; Tom Enders, chief executive of Airbus; Chuck Robbins, the chief executive of Cisco; Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of Hitachi Ltd and Grant Reid, president of Mars, among others, signed the letter to the FT, the newspaper reported. (http://on.ft.com/1NyD8nm)

"We see Britain's EU membership as a win-win situation: the single market offers us seamless access to a market of 500 million people, giving us instant possibility to scale up our investment," the business leaders said in the letter. (http://on.ft.com/1NyHGdB)

Microsoft (Euronext: MSF.NX - news) said on Tuesday that Britain should stay in the European Union if it wanted to receive more investment, while Ryanair also said last week that it would withdraw some investment if Britain opts to leave the EU.

Britons will vote on June 23 on whether their country should remain in or leave the 28-member bloc.

GE, Cisco, Mars, Airbus, EMC, Hitachi and Bloomberg were not available for comment outside regular business hours.

Sterling hit a three-month high against a trade-weighted basket of currencies on Wednesday, after a poll gave an 18-point lead to supporters of Britain staying in the EU. (Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; editing by Adrian Croft)