MICHAEL Wilde failed to shine any fresh light on his plans to attract new investment to Saints.

The football board chairman had told the Daily Echo last week that supporters and shareholders had to be "patient" as he worked behind the scenes to re-finance the club.

Wilde said last week that negotiations were ongoing and that he could not divulge the names of parties potentially interested in investing.

Shareholders assembled at St Mary's yesterday for Wilde's first annual meeting heard a similar story.

"My main aim is the long term refinancing of the club," he re-affirmed.

"The board are working very hard to bring the right levels of investment into the club.

"Not all the issues we face can be resolved in a short space of time.

"At the moment we're working towards trying to secure the club's long term financial future."

Wilde admitted that Saints' failure to win promotion this season would result in a "substantial" reduction in income for next season - the club would no longer qualify for a £6.5m parachute payment.

"It would be prudent to plan accordingly," he said.

Wilde also revealed he would be prepared to stand down if a major financial investor was found.

"This was always going to be a step by step situation," he added.

"The first step was to bring in new club management and a new approach and we have done that.

"The next step is to help secure the club's long term financial future.

"I would ask shareholders and supporters to be patient.

"Five months is a short time to try and attract the levels of investment we are seeking."

At the meeting it was confirmed that director Paul Thompson was standing down, and that another PLC board director, Brian Hunt, was retiring as of June 30, 2007.

A former Saints professional player, Hunt has been involved with the club for over 40 years. He has been a director of the club since the late 1980s.

Wilde and his fellow five PLC board members who were seeking re-election - Jim Hone, Ken Dulieu, Lee Hoos, Leon Crouch and Patrick Trant - were duly voted back in.

But while there were only 22,000 votes against Crouch and 297,000 against Trant, there were two million each against the other four.

Wilde, meanwhile, repeated his assurance to fans that Gareth Bale would not be sold in January "in the light of continuing national press speculation.

"I want to be unmistakably clear on that - no decisions will be taken which will have a detrimental affect to our chances of winning promotion."

Wilde added: "As I speak we are one place off the play-offs and seven points off the automatic promotion places.

"There are still 27 games left - clearly a long way to go."