The retail billionaire Mike Ashley has signalled that his summer shopping spree may be far from over, after he increased his stake in Hugo Boss to nearly half.
Ashley’s Frasers Group, which last week bought the Harvey Nichols department stores for a reported £40m, increased its shareholding in the German fashion house to 48%, just short of taking full control.
In June, Frasers made a nearly €2bn (£1.73bn) takeover offer for the luxury group, but its board rejected the bid as “inadequate” and urged shareholders not to accept it.
The new, higher stake is a result of 17.6% of shareholders accepting Ashley’s offer, which amounted to €38 a share. That bid reflected only a 4% premium to Hugo Boss’s shares when it was tabled.
Axel Rudolph, an analyst at the investing platform IG, said it was “another major step towards gaining control” of Hugo Boss. Ashley’s new shareholding put Frasers “firmly in the driving seat as it looks to increase its influence”, he added.
