Frasers Group has increased its holding in Hugo Boss to just under 48 per cent, falling short of full control over the German luxury fashion brand.
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct owner offered €38 per share for every Hugo Boss share it did not already own, securing 12,157,598 additional shares from willing investors.
Those extra shares represent more than 17 per cent of Hugo Boss and are valued at more than €463m, equivalent to approximately £396m, based on the company’s closing share price.
Frasers, already Hugo Boss’s largest shareholder before the offer, now holds a 47.89 per cent stake worth more than €1bn in the fashion house.
Hugo Boss’s board had previously dismissed Frasers’s initial £1.7bn bid for the entire company as “inadequate,” urging shareholders to reject Ashley’s offer outright.
Analysts had noted the “modest” four per cent premium that Ashley’s offer represented, and Hugo Boss shares climbed above the €38 mark immediately after the bid was tabled in June.
The push for greater control over Hugo Boss forms part of Ashley’s broader strategy to strengthen his fashion empire’s position in the luxury sector.
Frasers last week also acquired struggling department store chain Harvey Nichols out of administration for £40m, signalling further ambitions in the upmarket retail space.
Harvey Nichols, once synonymous with the 1990s sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, has fallen significantly from its former heights, and Frasers intends to integrate it with its luxury Flannels brand.
Announcing the Harvey Nichols deal, Frasers chief executive Michael Murray said: “Harvey Nichols is an iconic British institution with significant potential, but it is clear meaningful change is needed.”
Murray added: “The turnaround will require tough choices, and we are prepared to make those decisions, even if that means a smaller business in the near term, to create a stronger and more sustainable Harvey Nichols for the long term.”
Following Hugo Boss’s rejection of the initial takeover approach, Frasers had also been plotting to install Murray, Ashley’s son-in-law, as chief executive of the German group.
The potential move would echo Frasers’s efforts to gain influence at online retailer Boohoo, where the group unsuccessfully attempted to force Ashley onto the board in 2024 after building a 27 per cent stake.