But it is the short shelf life of a crucial contract in another much more lucrative part of the SAI business that continues to be a flashpoint for potential bidders in the run-up to the new deadline for final bids of September 12.

More than half of SAI's annual profits come from the company's information services division, which itself generates a large chunk of those funds from a worldwide licence to publish, distribute and sell Australian standards on behalf of official body Standards Australia.

Potential bidders, including Pacific Equity Partners with partner Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, are weighing up the uncertainty around new commercial terms to be negotiated between SAI and Standards Australia in 2018. There are concerns there is too much doubt around the agreement to make an aggressive offer for the whole of SAI.

It is now about to come to a head, with SAI executive chairman Andrew Dutton revealing on Friday that final offers from those undertaking due diligence for either the whole of the company, or part of it, are needed by September 12.

SAI shares closed 7¢ lower at $4.69 on Friday, well shy of the original indicative proposal of between $5.10 and $5.25 per share made by PEP in May.

Mr Dutton was adamant on August 21, when delivering SAI's full-year results, there was no danger SAI would lose the contract, under which it sells and publishes up to 7000 standards across a range of industries on behalf of Standards Australia.

But that is not the main issue.

SAI, deep in its 175-page set of annual accounts, said "the agreement envisages that prior to December, 2018, SAI Global and Standards Australia will negotiate the commercial terms for a further five-year period from December 2018 to December 2023". It refers to that agreement as the Publishing Licence Agreement, known colloquially as the PLA.

It is the prospect of a substantially increased royalty rate to be charged by Standards Australia when the new arrangements are thrashed out in 2018 that will potentially eat into SAI's profits, which has potential bidders spooked.

Credit Suisse analysts led by Paul Buys said if they were analysing SAI on a fundamentals basis, they would look closely at whether its intention to pull out costs of $6 million in 2014-15 and improvements in the compliance division would be enough to outweigh uncertainties "like the PLA reset" and uncertainties around an industry-wide electronic conveyancing platform rollout.

SAI's information services business made $63.9 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in 2013-14 - almost double the SAI assurance division EBITDA of $33.1 million, which runs the Five Ticks quality assurance system as part of its operations. SAI's third main arm is the compliance services division, which produces EBITDA of $25 million.

SAI was floated out of Standards Australia in 2003 and the 15-year contract to publish standards had a low royalty rate of 10 per cent to give SAI the best chance in its new life. Other global players pay royalties that are five times that.