If you've held IMF so long that your original basis has been...

If you've held IMF so long that your original basis has been repaid in dividends, you've done remarkably well so i'm not sure what your issue is? Last i'd checked they've compounded book value per share something like 14% since inception and that's in spite of at times generous fully franked dividends along the way. Without having done the numbers, my guess is an investment in IMF with dividends reinvested would be throwing off a total return in the high teens or close to 20% p.a. for 15 years. Very few fashion retailers (or any companies, frankly) i'm aware of would've done that over the last 15 years.

If you think they ever sold "nothing can go wrong", i reckon you may have misinterpreted their party line somewhere along the way. They obviously put the positive figures of their track record front and centre, but i can't recall any of their comms ever saying it's a foolproof and a guaranteed road to riches.