Work share is based on the size of each order led by the UK (37.5 per cent), Germany (30 per cent), Italy (19.5 per cent) and Spain (13 per cent).
So what actually happened? Could it be that the UK ordered more than they were ever going to need, knowing that the Saudia order was in the bag. Always intending to eventually plead poverty, reduced requirments and, "oh gosh, what a surprise, here's a handy buyer for all those spare Typhoons." That original large order secured 37.5% of the workshare for the UK and the opportunity to get the ECR-90 RADAR onboard. Thus boosting the value of what was once Ferranti Edinburgh, now SELEX Gallileo, and now owned by Italy's Finmeccanica.
A clever trick, assuming the rest of the partner nations accept it. Italy will not have too many problems with it. They now own, in Finmeccanica, the fruits of all that dickering to get the UK extra workshare.
Now it could be, of course, that the other partners will kick up a fuss. Why should the Saudi order be treated differently to Austria? Additionally the Saudi's will be looking for offsets and workshare of their own. Perhaps at the end all the Saudia aircraft will be additional, as the consortium rules demand, and the UK will end up having to accept all of its original order so the RAF will end of with a lot of spare aircraft in storage. Or even worse, and all too plausible, the UK will pay the penalty and not get the aircraft!
Whatever the case, BAE will have done very nicely out of it. They get to build 37.5% of those 80+ 'unwanted' jets, or take the same percentage of the penalty, and they offloaded Ferranti/Selex to Italy for a tidy sum.
Well that, as some would have it, is how capitalism works. But who bought that 'nice little earner' for BAE, along with a bunch of jets surplus to requirements? Why the UK taxpayer of course, and that too is how capitalism works.