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By Ben Hirschler and Martinne Geller
LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) - Chief executives from Tokyo toDenver prepared for long-term disruption, job cuts and lowerprofits on Friday after Britain's vote to leave the EuropeanUnion raised widespread fears over economic growth and sentshare prices spinning.
In Britain itself, businesses including aerospace,housebuilders and drugmakers fear a range of difficulties fromslumping demand to new regulatory hurdles as the pound plungedto its lowest level since 1985.
British Airways owner IAG warned that it would nolonger meet its annual profit target and car manufacturersincluding Ford, which employs around 14,000 people in theUnited Kingdom, indicated that it could ultimately lead to jobcuts.
"Ford will take whatever action is needed to ensure that ourEuropean business remains competitive," the company said, addingthat it had not changed its investment plans yet.
World stocks headed for one the biggest slumps on record asinvestors predicted the impact of the narrow 52 vs 48 percentvote for Britain to leave the European Union would damageeconomic confidence across the globe.
The president of Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, the world's second-largest steelmaker, said the votewas extremely disappointing.
"We are greatly concerned for the negative impact this willhave, not only on Britain and the EU but also on the globaleconomy," said Kosei Shindo.
Those who campaigned for Britain to leave had said a weakerpound could help UK exports, but it will also reduce the valueof foreign companies' UK earnings and raise questions aboutaccess to the EU market.
"This decision will create tremendous uncertainty, whichwill slow economic activity and decision making," said MartinSorrell, the boss of the world's biggest advertising group WPP.
Jaguar Land Rover, Britain's biggest carmaker, has estimatedits annual profit could shrink by 1 billion pounds ($1.4billion) by 2020 if Britain returns to World Trade Organizationrules for trade with Europe.
Shares in the company's owner, India's Tata Motors, fell 8 percent.
IMMEDIATE STEPS
Some businesses signaled an intention to push for asettlement between the UK and the EU that would minimize damageto their business, while others took immediate steps.
"This is a lose-lose result for both Britain and Europe,"said Airbus CEO Thomas Enders. "We will review our UKinvestment strategy, like everybody else will."
Volkmar Denner, CEO of Bosch, said its investment planswould not change, for now, but it was preparing for a weakerBritish currency: "We have significantly raised our hedgingratios in order to counteract a possible depreciation of theBritish pound."
The German appliances maker plans to invest 25 million eurosin Britain this year.
Randstad, the world's second-largest employmentservices company, said it might need to restructure, as in didduring the financial crisis in 2009, to cope with disruption tothe jobs market.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned for Britain toremain in, said he would resign and leaders in Scotland, whichvoted strongly to stay in Europe, said they would considerholding a referendum to leave the United Kingdom.
Makers of Scotch whisky, who export more than 90 percent ofwhat they produce, fear market access could be jeopardised.
"There are serious issues to resolve in areas of majorimportance to our industry and which require urgent attention,notably the nature of future trade arrangements with both thesingle (European) market and the wider world," said David Frost,chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association.
Some investors warned of a coming British or even globalrecession as sterling collapsed to lowest since 1985.
Housebuilders Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon saw their market values slump bymore than a fifth on fears of a sharp economic downturn.
Bank shares such as Barclays and Credit Suisse also tumbled, as well as domestic retailers like SportsDirect and Marks & Spencers. Meanwhilesafer-haven sectors, like gold miners and tobacco, outperformed.
STERLING HEADACHE
Big swings in sterling will be a headache for someinternational companies, with a fall in the currency hittingprofits earned in Britain.
International companies with sizeable sterling exposureinclude Denver-based Molson Coors, owner of Carlingbeer, which is heavily reliant on the UK.
But for multinationals reporting in sterling, there will bea short-term boost to profits, when expressed in pounds.
Aside from market access, streamlining of regulations withinthe EU has made life simpler.
Pharmaceutical companies, for example, enjoy a one-stop shopin the form of the London-based European Medicines Agency, whichapproves new drugs for all EU countries, while the EU's openairspace deals have fostered a surge in air travel and commonpolicies on agriculture and food safety have allowed forsmoother supply chains.
Companies in those sectors have fretted that Britain outsidethe bloc would disrupt the regulatory landscape.
Ahead of the vote, some British-based multinationals such asDiageo, Unilever and Rolls-Royce hadexpressed their support for "Remain" directly to employees,although most stopped short of this.
Rolls-Royce said on Friday the medium and long-term impactwould depend on the relationships struck by Britain with the EUand the rest of the world.
Government figures show 12.6 percent of Britain's economicoutput is linked to exports to the EU's 27 other members, forwhom only 3.1 percent of output is linked to exports to Britain.And 80 percent of British businesses trading overseas do so withthe EU.
The Confederation of British Industry has estimated therecould be between 550,000 and 950,000 fewer jobs by 2020 in theevent of Brexit.
For banks, a huge concern has been the threat that financialinstitutions based in London could lose their EU "passports", orthe automatic right to sell services across the bloc undersingle low-cost system. That has made bank shares particularlyvolatile in the run-up to the referendum.
Brexit uncertainty has also helped push British merger andacquisition activity this year at its lowest as a proportion ofglobal activity since records began in 1980.
It could also impact large deals already in process, such asAnheuser-Busch InBev's $100 billion-plus takeover ofSABMiller and the $30 billion merger of London StockExchange Group and Deutsche Boerse. ($1 = 0.7428 pounds) (Additional reporting by Kate Holton, Ritsuko Ando, YukaObayashi and Laurence Frost; editing by Keith Weir and PhilippaFletcher)
