Company: AVD
Filing Date: 2025-05-29
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-079166
Chunk: 40

Company: AMERICAN VANGUARD CORP
Filing Date: 2025-05-29
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 40
---
 Company has adopted a policy to prohibit short sales or hedging transactions by executives and members of the Board. Through these awards and these policies, the Company believes that executives will take a longer term view of the Company and will seek to enhance stockholder value several years into the future. Equity awards also serve as a means of encouraging future performance and of retaining key employees over the long term. In addition, it is highly prevalent among peer companies to award equity to executives regularly. In the Company’s case, these awards are typically made early in the fiscal year. We believe that it would be difficult to attract, motivate, and retain executives without offering them a share in the Company’s long-term prospects. In 2024, in an effort to encourage greater shareholder value, the Board has elected to award options to the NEOs that will vest and be exercisable only if the Company’s common stock equals or exceeds $20 per share (for one-third of the shares) or $25 per share (for two-thirds of the shares) for 30 consecutive trading days. In addition, the Board awarded restricted stock units to NEOs that vest on the third anniversary of the award and are subject to forfeiture if, for any reason, the recipient is not continuously employed by the Company through the vesting date. In making equity award decisions, the Compensation Committee and Board also take into account the fair market value of the Company’s shares and the potentially dilutive effect of making awards. For example, in 2025, in light of a low share price and a lender-imposed moratorium on repurchasing shares, the Compensation Committee suspended the annual equity award for existing employees (including incumbent NEOs) pending a return to a higher share price. As more fully described below in “Benchmarking and the Compensation Consultant”, the Compensation Committee periodically conducts a benchmarking study to take into account, among other things, the prevalence (by amount and type) of equity awarded to executive officers of similarly situated companies. These studies typically include information on prevalent rates at which available shares are consumed under equity plans of peers. In awarding equity, the Compensation Committee considers not only these studies, but also the compensation history of the Company, retention issues, and the expensing of

<div align='center'>30</div>

equity awards in connection with its recommendation to the Board. In 2024, the Board followed its standard practice of awarding shares to executives, including both time-based restricted shares and TSR-based options.

Other Cash Compensation– With the departure of the CEO,