SAO PAULO, Sept 30 (Reuters) -

Brazil's Boa Vista is waiting for lower prices before it uses its 1.2 billion reais ($222.5 million) in cash to help finance any new mergers and acquisitions, the chief executive of the credit services company said in an interview.

Boa Vista listed two years ago on the B3 Bolsa Balcao stock exchange, telling investors it would use the proceeds to acquire startups for its platform. Benchmark interest rates were at an historical low of 2% at that time, but the Selic rate is now at 13.75%.

"Investors complain because we acquired only two companies," Boa Vista CEO Dirceu Gardel told Reuters on Thursday. "But our strategy was to wait to get better prices," he added, saying new M&A deals could be announced later this year or in 2023.

Analysts are generally optimistic about the outlook for Boa Vista, which has already acquired debt restructuring fintech Acordo Certo and fraud prevention startup Konduto. Three of the five analysts that cover the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock, according to Refinitiv.

Gardel expects the company to use more data generated by Brazil's credit scoring system, which only recently began receiving information from utilities. Power companies have started sending data to the system, and water and gas utilities should also provide information in the coming months. ($1 = 5.3928 reais) (Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Paul Simao)