Company: ARI
Filing Date: 2025-04-29
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001193125-25-104054
Chunk: 39

Company: Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-29
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 39
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 our Company and the contributions made by these individuals**

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**to such success during 2024 including prudent liquidity management, pro-active asset management, our substantive investor outreach and engagement and our continued efforts to drive our Company’s growth and support the strength of our balance sheet and risk management activities. While each of these principles and factors is considered by Apollo in making compensation decisions, Apollo did not attempt to rank or assign relative weight to any of the above factors but rather applied its judgment in considering them in their entirety.

In setting compensation for its professionals, including our named executive officers (our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer), Apollo did not take into account the amount of the management fee we pay to our Manager. This approach focuses on the belief that a whole team of professionals at Apollo (in addition to our named executive officers) support our Company and these professionals not only support our efforts but also work on a broad range of activities for Apollo. As a consequence, no portion of the management fee paid to our Manager was allocated by our Manager to the compensation paid by Apollo to any of our named executive officers.

However, to put into context the compensation paid by Apollo to our named executive officers in relation to our management fee, our Manager estimates the total compensation of the named executive officers paid by Apollo that was reasonably associated with their support of our Company, including any equity-based awards given to our named executive officers of our Common Stock or any equity-based awards related to the common stock of an affiliate of our Manager, represented less than 10% of the management fee paid by us to our Manager in 2024. See Footnote 3 under “Executive Compensation—Compensation of Executive Officers—Summary Compensation Table.” Of the total compensation paid to our named executive officers by Apollo in 2024 approximately 20% was fixed (i.e., annual base salary), and approximately 80% was variable or incentive pay (i.e., bonus).

Equity Compensation

The Compensation Committee has granted, and may continue to grant, from time to time, equity-based awards designed to align the interests of our Manager and personnel of our Manager and its affiliates who support our Manager in providing services to us under our Management Agreement with those of our stockholders, by allowing our Manager and personnel of our Manager and its affiliates to share in the creation of value for our stockholders through stock appreciation and dividends. These equity-based awards are generally subject to time-based vesting requirements designed to promote retention and to achieve strong performance for