Frasers now owns over 47.89% of Hugo Boss shares after its July cash offer of €38 per-share has bolstered its stake from the 26.06% of Hugo Boss it owned in June.
The shares were purchased over the last month by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group from Hugo Boss shareholders despite Hugo Boss urging its shareholders to reject Frasers’ hostile €2bn takeover attempt, saying it was “financially inadequate”.
If Frasers Group manages to get total control of Hugo Boss, then it would have no further issues, as the potential takeover deal has already received European Union clearance in late July.
In response to the new shareholding Stephan Sturm, chairman of the supervisory board of Hugo Boss said in a statement to Reuters.
“We appreciate Frasers Group’s continued long-term commitment to HUGO BOSS and look forward to maintaining a constructive relationship with them as our single largest shareholder,”
He added that the Supervisory Board would continue to support the brand’s execution of its Claim 5 Touchdown strategy while remaining “firmly committed to Hugo Boss” established governance framework and acting in the best interests of the company and all its stakeholders”.
Mike Ashley recently became the fifth-biggest shareholder of Burberry, taking a 4.2% stake last month that was worth about £160m and he bought Harvey Nichols out of administration last week.
