The British retailer has offered to buy out Hugo Boss. It valued the brand at a premium of only 4%

Billionaire Mike Ashley's British clothing maker Frasers has offered to buy out Hugo Boss shares outright, valuing the German fashion brand at around €2.7 billion, only slightly above the market price. Frasers, which already owns more than a quarter of Hugo Boss, expects to complete the deal in the second half of 2026.

British sportswear and fashion retailer Frasers Group offered to sell Hugo Boss shareholders June 10 for €38 cash each, Reuters quoted a company press release as saying. That is 4% above the price of Hugo Boss shares at the close of trading on Wednesday in Germany. The deal will total about €2 billion ($2.31 billion).

Including the stake already held by Frasers, the offer values the entire Hugo Boss business at about €2.7 billion ($3.1 billion). The British group now owns 26.06% of the German company and is its largest shareholder, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.

Bloomberg estimates that a full acquisition of Hugo Boss would give Frasers direct control over the company's strategy and capital allocation. In recent months, the parties have been at odds over governance issues. In particular, Frasers opposed the payment of dividends to Hugo Boss shareholders, believing that the funds should be used for business development, Bloomberg recalls.

Frasers, which owns the Sports Direct chain as well as the Slazenger and Gieves & Hawkes brands, is known for acquiring large stakes in other retailers and actively influencing decisions at board level.

For Hugo Boss, the offer comes at a challenging time. The company is facing weak demand in China and continuing problems in the womenswear segment. CEO Daniel Grider is trying to improve results by optimizing product mix and tightening cost controls, Bloomberg writes.Ties between the companies were strengthened further last year when Frasers CEO Michael Murray, son-in-law of Frasers founder Mike Ashley, joined Hugo Boss' supervisory board, Bloomberg writes.

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