Our Share

For global equity markets, 2022 was another year characterized by heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties taking center stage. Against the backdrop of an overall volatile and challenging market environment, HUGO BOSS shares showed strong resilience, ending the year at EUR 54.16 and thus in positive territory (2021: EUR 53.50), supported by the successful execution of the Company’s “CLAIM 5” strategy. Consequently, with an increase of 1%, HUGO BOSS shares significantly outperformed important indices and the share price performances of nearly all relevant competitors.

In 2022, global equity markets experienced a difficult and highly volatile start to the year. In particular, COVID-19 variant Omicron caused ongoing restrictions in several markets and resulted in persistent supply chain and input price pressure. While markets were already readjusting to higher interest rates as well as a more restrictive monetary policy, ultimately, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine put an additional strain on equity markets and significantly weighed on risk assets. The resulting commodity and energy crisis led to global inflation reaching new highs, forcing central banks to balance between steep rate-hikes to fight inflation and preventing a recession. Over the course of the year, the Fed increased its benchmark rate by 4.25% via seven hikes and the ECB by 2.75% via four hikes. Against the backdrop of the rapid rise in non-discretionary prices, the negative impact on the overall consumer sentiment left capital market participants in a risk-off mode, thus dominating equity markets in particular in the second half of 2022. Besides these negative drivers, shortly before the end of the year, news flow around China turning away from its zero-COVID policy after three years drove capital markets positively, enabling them to partly offset some of their losses accumulated during the year.

Overall, and filled with high volatility, global equity markets underperformed compared to previous years. In this context, Germany’s major indices recorded strong losses in 2022, with the DAX down 12% and the MDAX down 28%, respectively. The MSCI World Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods Index, which reflects the share price performance of key companies in the apparel and luxury goods segment, also recorded severe losses in 2022 and ended the year 24% below the prior-year level.

Against the backdrop of the overall challenging market environment, characterized by elevated macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, such as COVID-19, inflationary pressure, as well as the war in Ukraine, the HUGO BOSS share recorded a decline at the beginning of 2022, in line with the broader luxury and premium apparel sector. However, thanks to the successful execution of our “CLAIM 5” strategy, our share showed strong resilience thereafter and was thus able to make up the losses during the course of the year. In particular, the strong and broad-based acceleration in top-line growth, fueled by our comprehensive branding refresh, was very positively received by capital market participants, and seen as proof positive for the company’s positive development and successful strategy execution. On the back of the strong financial and operational performance in the first half of the year, HUGO BOSS raised its top- and bottom-line outlook for 2022 together with the publication of record second quarter results in July. Also in the second half of the year, the macroeconomic environment remained rather challenging with the worsening energy crisis in Europe, several back-to-back interest rate hikes, and consumer confidence in Germany hitting multiyear lows all weighing on the broader luxury and premium apparel sector as well as our share price performance alike. However, our continued strong top- and bottom-line momentum in the third quarter – spurred by the successful execution of several brand, product, and sales initiatives as part of “CLAIM 5” – prompted HUGO BOSS to raise its full-year sales and earnings forecast again in November. Towards the end of the year, the general “reopening optimism” in China provided further stimulus to the HUGO BOSS share, which ultimately closed 2022 at a level of EUR 54.16, representing an increase of 1% year over year and a strong outperformance compared to relevant indices. In addition, this made HUGO BOSS the second-best performing stock among our core peer group in 2022, outperforming all but one of our competitors in the premium segment of the global apparel industry as determined within our long-term incentive program (LTI). Compensation Report

The HUGO BOSS share, which is listed in the German MDAX, improved to 56th place (2021: 63rd) in Deutsche Börse’s free-float-adjusted market capitalization ranking at the end of 2022, based on the total number of companies in the DAX, MDAX, and SDAX. While the HUGO BOSS share ranked 48^th in terms of trading volume (2021: 55th), the weighting of the HUGO BOSS share in the MDAX increased to a level of 2.2% at the end of 2022 (December 31, 2021: 1.5%). On average, around 475,000 shares per day were traded on Xetra in 2022 (2021: around 375,000).

During 2021, 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, 2022, their voting rights thus continued to total 15.45%. Both companies have pooled their shares through a shareholder agreement. 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 82.55% of the shares were held in free float. Legal Disclosures

At the Annual Shareholders’ 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, 2022. Legal Disclosures

In fiscal year 2022, members of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board acquired additional HUGO BOSS shares. A list of the transactions conducted by the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board on their own account reported to HUGO BOSS in 2022 in accordance with Article 19 regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation) is published on the Company’s website at financialreleases.hugoboss.com. In total, members of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board held almost 1.5% of the shares issued by HUGO BOSS at the end of fiscal year 2022. Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 25

The Company received several voting rights notifications from institutional investors in fiscal year 2022. 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, in order to address institutional investors in a targeted manner. In the most recent analysis, approximately 98% of the shares have been allocated. Besides the regional distribution of institutional investors, the analysis also allows to determine the proportion of shares held by private shareholders. The latter decreased slightly from 12% in the prior year to a level of 10% in 2022. Based on the share register, the Company estimates the total number of its shareholders at around 40,000 as of December 31, 2022 (2021: around 43,000), and thus broadly at around pre-pandemic levels.

In view of the strong operational and financial performance in 2022, the very solid financial position, and management’s confidence in the further successful execution of “CLAIM 5”, the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board intend to propose to the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on May 9, 2023, a dividend of EUR 1.00 per share for fiscal year 2022, corresponding to an increase of 43% year over year (2021: EUR 0.70). The proposal is equivalent to a payout ratio of 33% of the Group’s net income attributable to shareholders in fiscal year 2022, in line with the Company’s mid-term target payout ratio of between 30% and 50%, as laid out in “CLAIM 5”. Assuming that the shareholders approve the proposal, the dividend will be paid out on May 12, 2023. Based on the number of shares outstanding at the end of the year, the amount distributed will total EUR 69 million (2021: EUR 48 million). Outlook

We aim to inform capital market participants about the Company’s 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 in particular at national and international conferences, as well as during numerous global roadshow activities. As part of the opening of our new BOSS flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, we invited both financial analysts and institutional investors to experience our brand’s new store concept – a main pillar of our strategic claim “Rebalance Omnichannel” – and directly interact with our Managing Board. In addition, we regularly present HUGO BOSS to interested private shareholders at dedicated events. Our Investor Relations website 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 2022, the work of our Investor Relations team was awarded several times, including second place in the category “Best Investor Relations Professional (MDAX)” by DIRK (German Investor Relations Association), Institutional Investor Research, and WirtschaftsWoche, as well as a strong third place for “Best Investor Relations Department (MDAX).” In addition, in 2022 our HUGO BOSS 2021 Annual Report received the prestigious Red Dot Design Award for Brands & Communication Design as “Best of the Best”. With its bold motto “NEW” and its creative and engaging design, our digitally-focused report represented a major milestone in communicating our “CLAIM 5” strategy to the world. irawards.hugoboss.com