Fashion and sports agency IMG is going to look as skinny as some of the supermodels it represents.
The agency is prepping for $151 million in cuts after being acquired by Hollywood talent agency WME and its partner Silver Lake Capital, according to two reports.
IMG — which is active in the sports and media sectors, owns the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and reps models Kate Upton and Gisele Bündchen, among others — had already gone through a round of cutbacks under CEO Mike Dolan leading up to its $2.45 billion acquisition by WME last December.
The new cuts are being ordered up by WME management Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell. The acquisition took WME, which solely represented Hollywood talent, into sports and media.
IMG is expected to shrink staff payrolls, and consolidate vendors and physical locations, the two reports said, citing pro-forma documents.
Nothing is sacred, and even some corporate jets could be cut as leases expire, according to a person knowledgeable of the process.
Silver Lake will be the largest owner of the new WME/IMG with a 50 percent stake; WME will own 47 percent, and the Abu Dhabi government’s Mubudala the remainder.
Separately, it emerged that IMG’s sports unit, which represents tennis players such as Novak Djokovic, is the biggest revenue generator, pulling in $626 million in 2013. College sports was the next largest unit, with revenue of $487 million. The media and entertainment unit rang up revenue of $448 million, according to The Wrap and Sports Business Journal, which first reported the details, later confirmed by The Post.
The cuts come as the new WME/IMG will begin life with $2.4 billion in debt. WME is hoping to increase operating profit margins to 22 percent from 12.4 percent, sources said.