Our Share

For global equity markets, 2024 was another year marked by elevated macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, alongside significant diverging trends across regions and sectors. While large caps outperformed mid and small caps and U.S. equities outpaced European stocks, the consumer discretionary sector lagged behind broader markets. This mainly reflects the subdued consumer sentiment in most regions, which affected the operational and financial performance of many companies. Against this backdrop, and following a strong performance between 2021 and 2023, HUGO BOSS shares faced a setback in 2024, closing the year at EUR 44.78 (2023: EUR 67.46), down 34%.

Overall, 2024 marked a robust year for global equity markets, with artificial intelligence (AI), monetary policies by central banks, and geopolitical developments shaping the overall performance. The MSCI World gained 17%, largely driven by U.S. equities, with the S&P 500 posting its second consecutive year of returns exceeding 20%. This development was fueled by U.S. tech giants benefiting from the ongoing AI hype, enabling US indices to significantly outperform the rest of the world. In the first half of 2024, investors focused on macroeconomic developments, particularly broad-based disinflation. As inflation moved closer towards the 2% target, central banks began normalizing their policies, with the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting rates in June 2024 for the first time since 2016, followed shortly by the Federal Reserve (Fed). However, as inflation proved more persistent than expected, investors tempered expectations for further rate cuts, particularly in the U.S. Despite this, the U.S. economic exceptionalism remained largely intact.

In contrast, European economic momentum weakened throughout the year. Limited AI exposure further prevented European equities from keeping pace with U.S. counterparts. The divergence widened in the second half of 2024, as investor focus shifted towards geopolitics. Political turmoil intensified in France and Germany, where fiscal pressures and rising populist parties fractured the political landscape. Following unexpected snap elections, attention turned to the U.S. elections, with the outcome further supporting U.S. assets, while risk-off sentiment continued to dominate in Europe. In particular, pro-business policies as well as the threat of protectionist measures further fueled the outperformance of U.S. equities over European and Asian markets. Chinese economic activity remained subdued throughout 2024, reflecting the ongoing real estate crisis and weak consumer confidence. However, more cohesive policy announcements fueled hopes that 2025 could bring the stimulus needed to support the Chinese economy.

Overall, and despite the high level of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, 2024 proved to be a risk-on year for global equities. Germany’s major index, the DAX, gained 19% in 2024, while the MDAX, burdened by structural disadvantages for smaller companies, declined 6%. In light of weak global consumer sentiment, the MSCI World Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods Index, which reflects the share price performance of key companies in the apparel and luxury goods segment, ended the year down 11%.

The challenging trading environment for consumer discretionary stocks, particularly in the apparel sector also weighed on the share price development of HUGO BOSS. Following a strong performance between 2021 and 2023 – fueled by the introduction and successful execution of our “CLAIM 5” strategy, which propelled our share to a five-year high in mid-2023 – attention turned to mounting concerns about a normalization in sector growth. In particular, weakening consumer sentiment across most markets led to a faster-than-anticipated slowdown of the premium and luxury sector. As a result, investor sentiment towards the broader sector and trading activity turned increasingly bearish throughout the year. With external headwinds intensifying over the course of 2024, HUGO BOSS was not able to decouple from the broader sector slowdown. Persistently muted consumer confidence inevitably weighed on the Company’s operational and financial performance, with HUGO BOSS adjusting its top- and bottom-line outlook for fiscal year 2024 in mid-July. This downward revision, alongside several profit warnings across the sector, led to a reset of market expectations, negatively impacting our share price performance.

In response to the weak consumer sentiment, HUGO BOSS accelerated its focus on enhancing cost efficiency in the second half of the year, successfully adapting to the challenging market environment. Although this helped our share to stabilize in the second half of 2024, we were ultimately not able to make up the losses that occurred during the first half year as well as the divergence between U.S. and European equities, which was visible throughout fiscal year 2024. While our peer group, which mainly consists of U.S. competitors, ended the year slightly up on average, HUGO BOSS shares closed at EUR 44.78, down 34% and thus broadly in line with its European premium/luxury peers.

Consequently, the HUGO BOSS share, listed in the German MDAX, ranked 72nd in Deutsche Börse’s free-float-adjusted market capitalization ranking at the end of 2024 (2023: 51st), based on the total number of companies in the DAX, MDAX, and SDAX. The weighting of the HUGO BOSS share in the MDAX decreased to a level of 1.5% at the end of 2024 (December 31, 2023: 2.7%) and on average, around 400,000 shares were traded on Xetra in 2024 per day (2023: around 270,000). The increase in trading volume mainly reflects the heightened volatility experienced by the broader sector, including HUGO BOSS shares, in 2024.

During 2024, PFC S.r.l. and Zignago Holding S.p.A., each controlled by the Marzotto family, maintained their strategic investment in HUGO BOSS. As of December 31, 2024, their total position continued to total 15.45%, with 14.80% attributable to directly held shares, according to the most recent voting right notifications of February 13, 2020. Both companies have pooled their shares through a shareholder agreement. As of December 31, 2024, Frasers Group plc directly held 19.25% of the voting rights, according to the voting rights notification of December 23, 2024, while a further 8.95% being held through instruments. HUGO BOSS itself holds 1,383,833 own shares, which were purchased as part of a share buyback program between 2004 and 2007. This corresponds to a share of 1.97% or EUR 1,383,833 of the share capital. The remaining 64% of shares were held in free float. Legal Disclosures

At the Annual General Meeting 2020, HUGO BOSS was granted a renewed authorization to buy back shares up to a proportion of 10% of the outstanding share capital on or before May 26, 2025. The Company did not make use of this authorization as of December 31, 2024. Legal Disclosures

In fiscal year 2024, members of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board acquired additional HUGO BOSS shares. Details of all transactions conducted by the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board on their own account, as reported to HUGO BOSS in accordance with Article 19 of regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation), are available on the Company’s website at financialreleases.hugoboss.com. By the end of fiscal year 2024, members of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board continued to hold around 1.5% of the shares issued by HUGO BOSS. Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 25

The Company received several voting rights notifications from institutional investors in fiscal year 2024. The original wordings of these notifications are published on our corporate website at financialreleases.hugoboss.com.

HUGO BOSS regularly conducts analyses of the shares held in free float, to address institutional investors in a targeted manner. Besides the regional distribution of institutional investors, the analysis also allows the proportion of shares held by private shareholders to be determined. With around 11% in 2024, the latter remained broadly consistent with the prior-year level (2023: 10%). Based on the share register, the Company estimates that the total number of its shareholders remained broadly stable at around 40,000 as of December 31, 2024 (2023: around 40,000).

HUGO BOSS maintains a close dialog with capital market participants and is continuously monitored by a large number of financial analysts, with 21 analysts regularly publishing research reports on HUGO BOSS in 2024 (2023: 22 analysts). As of December 31, 2024, 43% of our analysts recommended investors to buy our share (2023: 64%), 48% to hold our share (2023: 36%), and 10% to sell our share (2023: 0%), coupled with an average target price of EUR 47.07 (2023: EUR 79.36).

Despite the decline in earnings in fiscal year 2024, the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board intend to propose to the Annual General Meeting on May 15, 2025, a dividend of EUR 1.40 per share for fiscal year 2024, reflecting an increase of 4% compared to the prior-year level (2023: EUR 1.35). This decision underscores the Company’s robust financial position as well as management’s confidence in its long-term growth opportunities and its continued ability to generate a significantly positive free cash flow in the future. The proposal is equivalent to a payout ratio of 45% of the Group’s net income attributable to shareholders in fiscal year 2024 (2023: 36%), in line with the Company’s mid-term target payout ratio of between 30% and 50%, as laid out in “CLAIM 5”. Assuming that shareholders approve the proposal, the dividend will be paid out on May 20, 2025, equaling EUR 97 million (2023: EUR 93 million). Outlook

HUGO BOSS aims to inform capital market participants about its current business development as well as its operational and financial performance in a timely and transparent manner as part of comprehensive communication measures. With our extensive Investor Relations activities, we speak to institutional investors at national and international conferences as well as during numerous global roadshow activities. In addition, we regularly present HUGO BOSS to interested private shareholders at dedicated events. Our Investor Relations website group.hugoboss.com/investors is a key communication tool for providing detailed information, including press releases, voting rights notifications, financial reports, the financial calendar, and presentations of roadshows and conferences.

In 2024, the work of our Investor Relations team was awarded several times. In addition to the “Deutscher Investor Relations Preis” (second rank as “Best Investor Relations Professional MDAX” and “Best Investor Relations Department MDAX”), we also received the renowned Investors’ Darling Award by Manager Magazin, Berenberg, and HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. Therein, HUGO BOSS took first place not only in the MDAX but also across all indices. Being honored as “Investors’ Darling” emphasizes our strong commitment to creating comprehensive insightful reporting while ensuring consistent and trustworthy dialog with the capital market community. In addition, HUGO BOSS received the ESG Transparency Award for the second consecutive year, recognizing our transparent and comprehensive reporting on sustainability matters. irawards.hugoboss.com

In line with our Company’s strong commitment to sustainability, we also integrated ESG (environment, social, governance) considerations into our Investor Relations activities. With growing investor expectations around sustainability and evolving regulatory requirements, we aim to ensure transparent reporting and sustainable business practices. As a result, our strong focus on ESG matters is increasingly recognized in leading ESG ratings and rankings, reflecting the heightened importance of sustainability for the financial community.

In 2024, HUGO BOSS has been included in the renowned Dow Jones Best-in-Class World Index (formerly: Dow Jones Sustainability Index World, DJSI World) for the eighth consecutive time, reflecting our continuous efforts in sustainability and our commitment to transparency. In addition, we also achieved inclusion in the DJSI Europe for the fifth time in a row. In the associated Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), we once again secured a strong second place in the global textiles, apparel & luxury goods industry, excelling in areas such as Transparency & Reporting, Tax Strategy, Human Rights, Privacy Protection, Labor Practices, and Customer Relations, where we achieved ”best in class” scores. At the same time, we further improved our ISS ESG rating from C+ to B–, positioning us among the leading companies within our industry.