(Adds Ant Group’s stake in Kakao Pay) SEOUL, April 26 (Reuters) - South Korean fintech company Kakao Pay Corp has applied for preliminary approval for an initial public offering (IPO), the Korea Exchange said on Monday. Kakao Pay Corp, a unit of South Korea’s top mobile messaging service provider Kakao Corp, provides financial services including money transfer, saving accounts, asset management. Kakao Corp is the largest shareholder with a 56.1% of Kakao Pay Corp as of end of 2020, followed by China’s Ant Group’s online platform Alipay’s 43.9% stake, Kakao Pay’s regulatory filing showed. In 2017, Ant invested $200 million in Kakao Pay.