Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance will pay its stockholders $4.10 a share later this month, the first cash installment in the wind-down of a commercial mortgage REIT that sold a $9 billion loan book in April and is now dissolving. The company declared the initial cash liquidating distribution on Oct. 9, 2026, payable Oct. 29 to common stockholders of record on Oct. 20.
The amount came in above the company’s own guidance. In the definitive proxy statement it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 24, 2026, the REIT said it anticipated an initial cash distribution “between $3.70 and $4.00 per Share on a fully-diluted basis” within roughly 30 days of stockholder approval. The $4.10 declared on Oct. 9 is 10 cents above the top of that range, and the payment lands 30 days after the vote.
Across the 128,212,093 shares the company reported outstanding as of Aug. 7, 2026, the distribution works out to roughly $526 million by our calculation.
What stockholders are being paid out of
Apollo Commercial, which trades on the NYSE as ARI, is not reorganizing or merging. It is being dissolved. Stockholders approved the Plan of Complete Liquidation and Dissolution at a special meeting on Sept. 29, 2026, and RealtyWire covered that vote when the company’s holders backed the dissolution after its $9 billion loan sale. According to the Form 8-K filed that day, 73,456,215 shares were represented, about 57.1 percent of shares entitled to vote, and the dissolution proposal carried with 72,217,727 votes in favor, 799,088 against and 439,400 abstentions.
The cash comes from the sale of the loan book. On April 24, 2026, the company completed the sale of its $9 billion commercial real estate portfolio to Athene for a price based on 99.7 percent of the total commitment amount of each commercial mortgage loan at closing, under an asset purchase and sale agreement dated Jan. 27, 2026. The consideration was paid entirely in cash, and the proceeds repaid the company’s secured debt agreements and corporate debt.
Stuart Rothstein, the company’s chief executive and president, framed the decision in the June 15, 2026 release that first disclosed the board’s intent. “Following the successful completion of the loan portfolio sale in April, our board of directors, in consultation with management, has conducted an extensive and thorough review of strategic alternatives for ARI,” he said, adding that after evaluating “a broad range of real estate-related strategies and potential transactions,” the board concluded that dissolution was in stockholders’ best interest. The same release declared a $3.75-per-share dividend paid July 15, 2026, which the proxy excludes from the liquidation math.
How much is left, and when
The proxy puts the Estimated Total Stockholder Distributions Range at $7.75 to $8.50 a share on a fully diluted basis, assuming a complete liquidation by the first half of 2028. That range includes the $4.10 just declared and excludes the July dividend. The company is explicit that it “cannot predict with certainty the amount of liquidating distributions.”
The remaining assets are real estate owned, not loans. The plan contemplates transferring the leftover REO, plus cash for a reserve fund covering contingent liabilities and any remaining debt, into a liquidating trust, with stockholders receiving non-transferable interests in that trust in proportion to their shares. The proxy says the trust structure “will allow us to avoid most of the costs of operating as a public company,” and that at least one trustee is expected to be an independent current director. The shares may also be delisted from the NYSE, either voluntarily by board decision or at the exchange’s initiative.
Apollo Commercial also cut ties with its external manager. A Termination Agreement signed Sept. 29, 2026 among the company, ACREFI Operating LLC and ACREFI Management LLC ends the amended and restated management agreement dated April 24, 2026, effective when Maryland’s State Department of Assessments and Taxation accepts the articles of dissolution. Under that agreement the manager, an indirect subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, waived any right to a termination fee and will be paid accrued compensation and reimbursable expenses only.
A trading quirk worth knowing
Because the $4.10 payment exceeds 25 percent of the share price, the NYSE set the ex-dividend date for Oct. 30, 2026 β the first business day after the payment date, rather than before the record date. From the record date through the close on Oct. 29, the shares trade with due bills, meaning a seller in that window passes the right to the distribution to the buyer. The company said due bills are settled between brokers and that it has no obligation for the amount or the processing.
Apollo Commercial is not the only real estate vehicle being wound up rather than repositioned this year: in September, DWS moved to liquidate its $203 million non-traded RREEF Property Trust. For commercial borrowers, the practical consequence of the Apollo Commercial story arrived in April, when a $9 billion book of first mortgages and subordinate financings changed hands; what is left now is a payout schedule. More coverage is in Commercial Real Estate.
