High-profile Sydney real estate agent John McGrath is set to end his company’s rocky nine-year ride on the sharemarket, after the founder and his board backed a $95.5 million buyout by property giant Knight Frank and New Zealand agency Bayleys.

Through a joint entity, the pair have offered to buy McGrath at 60¢ a share, representing a 27 per cent premium on McGrath’s pre-bid closing price of 47¢ a share on Friday. But that offer comes at more than a 70 per cent discount to the $2.10 price at which the listed agency floated in late 2015.