Frasers Group has raised its Frasers Hugo Boss stake to nearly 48%, pushing deeper into the German fashion brand’s ownership weeks after a full takeover bid was rejected by the company’s board. Frasers Group, the retail business behind Sports Direct and House of Fraser, confirmed the increased shareholding as part of its broader push into the luxury market.
Hugo Boss’s management and supervisory board had recommended that shareholders reject Frasers’ approach, calling the offer “inadequate from a financial point of view”. The offer had been priced at around 38 euros per share, valuing the remainder of the business at approximately 1.98 billion euros (£1.73 billion).
How the Frasers Hugo Boss stake grew after the offer period
The scale of investor resistance tells its own story. According to the Wall Street Journal, Frasers received acceptances for 12.2 million Hugo Boss shares, representing about 17.62% of the company. That is well short of the majority it would have needed to take control.
FashionNetwork USA reported the same acceptance figure: only 17.6% of investors backed the offer. The result left Frasers with a nearly 48% holding, a substantial minority position, but not the outright control Mike Ashley’s group had sought.
The starting point for the offer is worth noting. According to Reuters, Frasers held 26.06% of Hugo Boss at the point it launched the voluntary offer. The report had previously reported Frasers’ stake as around 36%, reflecting further share purchases made before and during the offer period. By the time the offer closed, the holding had climbed to close to 48%.
Frasers has been steadily building its position in Hugo Boss since it first started investing in 2020. As a consequence of that growing stake, Frasers’ chief executive Michael Murray sits on Hugo Boss’s supervisory board, giving the British retailer a direct voice in the German brand’s governance even without majority ownership.
Hugo Boss’s own strategy runs alongside the ownership battle
Hugo Boss is not simply waiting to see what Frasers does next. Reuters reported that the German brand launched a strategy in December 2025 aimed at delivering sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value through to 2028. That strategic plan gives the Hugo Boss board its own framework to point to when arguing the Frasers offer undervalued the business.
The rejection rested precisely on that financial assessment: the board concluded that 38 euros per share did not reflect the brand’s prospects, and shareholders largely agreed by declining to tender their stock.
Where the Harvey Nichols deal fits in
The move on Hugo Boss shares arrives alongside another step in the same direction. Frasers recently acquired Harvey Nichols, the historic department store chain, after it went under auction following a warning in its accounts that it would need to “cease trading” within a year if it failed to secure new investment.
The rescue deal covers six stores, in Knightsbridge London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Edinburgh, as well as the chain’s online business, product inventory, and around 1,000 workers. Frasers has described both moves as part of its “elevation strategy”, a plan to increase the group’s presence in the luxury market, building on the growth of its Flannels brand.
Mike Ashley, the billionaire British businessman who is widely known as the former owner of Newcastle United, owns Frasers Group. His group’s pattern of gradually accumulating shares in a target company over several years before making a formal approach is consistent with the Hugo Boss story: speculation about a potential takeover had been circulating since Frasers first began investing in 2020.
With the Frasers Hugo Boss stake now approaching 48%, the group falls just short of a majority but holds enough to remain the dominant shareholder. Hugo Boss’s board will present its 2028 strategy as evidence the brand is best managed independently. Frasers has said nothing publicly to suggest it has abandoned its interest.
