Two bumper transactions boosted China's merger and acquisition activity last month as deal value increased more than sixfold from a year earlier, according to an industry report.

China completed 141 M&A transactions in April, the Zero2IPO Research Center said in a report released yesterday.

The value of 130 deals that revealed their transaction figures totaled US$16 billion, a monthly increase of 72.7 percent. The total value represented a 534 percent surge from a year earlier, the report said.

"China's M&A market remained sluggish last month with a decreasing number of deals. The surge in transaction value was boosted by two mega deals involving BOE Technology Group Co and PetroChina Co," Shen Lingkun, analyst with Zero2IPO, said in the report.

BOE Technology, a Beijing-based provider of display technologies, products and solutions, raised 45.7 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion) through a private placement. PetroChina last month acquired a 40 percent stake in Canada's Dover oil sands project for C$1.3 billion (US$1.2 billion) from its partner Athabasca Oil Corp.

The value of the two deals accounted for 54 percent of the total M&A transaction value last month, the report said.