Shareholder Structure and Notifications
Largest shareholder continues to hold 10% of voting rights
Number of own shares unchanged
As was the case in the prior year, PFC S.r.l. and Zignago Holding S.p.A., two entities controlled by the Marzotto family, hold 10% of the voting rights of HUGO BOSS AG. Both companies have pooled their shares by way of a shareholder agreement. 88% of the company’s shares remain in free float. HUGO BOSS AG still holds 1,383,833 of its own shares, which were purchased as part of a share buyback scheme between 2004 and 2007. This corresponds to a share of 1.97% or EUR 1,383,833 of the share capital. No use was made in 2017 of the authorization made at the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting in 2015 to acquire shares in the Company up to a share of no more than 10% of the share capital outstanding on or before May 11, 2020. Legal Disclosures
Three notifications received regarding reportable securities transactions
Three notifications either to sell or to purchase HUGO BOSS AG securities in accordance with Sec. 15a WpHG [“Wertpapierhandelsgesetz”: Securities Trading Act] were presented to the Company by members of the Managing Board and Supervisory Board in the reporting period from January 1 to December 31, 2017. These were published on the corporate website at financialreleases.hugoboss.com. In total, members of the Managing Board and Supervisory Board together still hold less than 1% of the shares issued by HUGO BOSS AG. Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 26
Several voting rights notifications received
The Company received several voting rights notifications from investors in the reporting period from January 1 to December 31, 2017. The Company published the original wordings of these notifications on the corporate website at financialreleases.hugoboss.com.
Regional distribution of shareholder structure largely unchanged
The Company conducts regular analyses of the shares held in free float with a view to addressing the institutional investors investing in HUGO BOSS in a more targeted manner. The result of the analysis shows the regional distribution of the shareholder structure. There were no material shifts in comparison to the prior year. The amount of shares held by European investors outside Germany and Great Britain rose negligibly to 32% of the free float. At 25%, US investors are the second largest group. The shareholdings of British investors increased to 15%. Institutional investors from Germany continue to hold 12% of the share capital. The portion of shares held by private shareholders declined slightly to 8%.
Slight decrease in trading volume in 2017
At the end of the year, the HUGO BOSS share, which is listed on the MDAX, remained at 18th place in Deutsche Börse’s ranking calculated on the basis of market capitalization adjusted for free float. The HUGO BOSS share ranked 6th by trading volume (December 31, 2016: 4th place). In the overall ranking, calculated on the basis of these two factors, the company came in 17th place (2017: 17th place). The weighting of the HUGO BOSS share in the MDAX at the end of December came to 2.1% (December 31, 2016: 2.1%). On average, 339,793 shares per day were traded on Xetra in 2017 (2016: 427,931).