A co-chief executive officer of LINE Corp., Japan's largest messaging service provider, has been granted massive stock options, industry sources said Sunday.

According to the sources, LINE, an affiliate of South Korea's dominant Internet portal and search engine Naver Corp., has decided to give 10.8 percent of its shares listed on Japan's stock market to its employees over the next three years as stock options, with Shin Jung-ho, named last month as a co-CEO of LINE, receiving 2.7 percent.

Currently, some 240 million LINE stocks are listed on the stock market. The value of Shin's stock holding, if he purchases LINE shares at pre-set prices, is roughly estimated to be at least 250 billion won ($215 million) as of Friday, according to the sources.

Shin is credited with launching the messaging service, which has 80 million users in Japan, and spearheading the company's global growth.

Before LINE's stock market debut in 2016, Shin had already been given stock options for over 10 million shares. As of last year, Shin owns 1.97 percent of LINE.

LINE has been in a slump as of late, with growth in its user base virtually stalled. The company suffered a loss of 156 billion won in the first quarter of the year amid increased competition and marketing costs in Japan.

Currently, LINE is competing with Softbank and other major players to garner the lion's share of Japan's mobile payment market. (Yonhap)