A trio of multibillion-dollar deals in three different industries led to a sharp increase in the total amount of value transacted in the 2017 mergers and acquisitions market in New Jersey, data shows.

As a result, the total value of the top 30 deals involving a New Jersey-based target or acquirer last year increased to $72.23 billion, from $38.88 billion in 2016. That's a jump of nearly 85 percent, according to the data, provided by Thomson Reuters Financial.

While no deals on the New Jersey list exceeded $5 billion in value in 2016, three deals did in 2017.

Median deal size receded somewhat: To $795.5 million from $850 million, a 6.4 percent change.

As for deals eclipsing the $1 billion mark, 13 such deals did so in 2017, compared with 14 in 2016.

In sum, the M&A market for New Jersey-based corporations appears to have seen relative stasis, though New Jersey, like any market, is but one sample size. More broadly, conditions were right, with stock prices high and interest rates still low, according to one practitioner.

“It's where the chips fall, especially when you're talking about a particular state,” but more top-end deals generally “can soften up the market” for more activity, said Michael Rave, a partner in the M&A practice in Day Pitney's Parsippany office who advised Wayne-based Valley National Bancorp. last year on its acquisition of USAmeriBancorp of Clearwater, Florida.

“Other companies feel like, 'I need to do something,'” Rave said. In the banking and financial services industry, which comprises the bulk of his practice, “if the big boys start doing deals, the midtier banks feel like they need to follow suit,” he said.

The three big deals floating the New Jersey market's total value were: Franklin Lakes-based Becton Dickinson & Co.'s $24.23 billion acquisition of CR Bard Inc. of Murray Hill, completed late last December; Houston-based Calpine Corp.'s still-pending $15.97 billion acquisition by a private equity fund based in New Jersey, Energy Capital Partners, and other investors; and Campbell Soup Co. of Camden's $6.06 billion acquisition of Snyder's-Lance Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is also still pending.

Those deals showed some industry diversity. The Becton Dickinson-CR Bard tie-up came in the medical device industry, while the Calpine deal saw New Jersey-based investors in the energy industry target the Houston-based company, which describes itself as the “largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources.” The acquisition of snack-food maker Snyder's came in consumer staples, and is reportedly the largest M&A deal in Campbell's history.

The other two deals in the top 5 also came in varying industries: materials and technology.

The No. 4 deal is Herndon, Virginia-based Beacon Roofing Supply's $2.65 billion acquisition of Allied Building Products Corp. of East Rutherford, announced mid-2017 and completed earlier this month. Both companies distribute building materials.

At No. 5 is a still-pending merger of RCN Corp., a cable and internet provider based in Princeton., with fellow provider WaveDivision Holdings. According to reports, RCN already is owned by a private equity fund, TPG Global, that also counts provider Grande Communications among its assets.

Combined, the health care industry and consumer goods accounted for roughly half the top 30 list. There were five deals in financial services, and three each in the energy and technology industries.

As is the case each year, formidable law firms got the work, according to Thomson Reuters data. The name linked with the most transactions (five) of the New Jersey top 30 was Weil, Gotshal & Manges. The firm advised, among others: Campbell Soup in the Snyder's acquisition; Allergan, an Irish pharmaceutical company with its U.S. headquarters in Parsippany, in its acquisition of Pleasanton, California-based medical technology company ZELTIQ Aesthetics Inc. for $2.34 billion (No. 6 deal); and New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson's Codman Neurosurgery unit in its $1.05 billion acquisition by Inegra LifeSciences Holdings Corp. of Plainsboro (No. 12 deal).

Four more firms worked on four deals each: Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Kirkland & Ellis; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Sullivan & Cromwell.

Six firms were connected with three deals each: Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Latham & Watkins; Shearman & Sterling; Sidley Austin; and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

A dozen other firms were connected to two deals each.

Day Pitney was the lone local firm whose name came up in connection with any deal on the top 30 list. The Valley-USAmeriBank deal—at $816 million, it ranks as the 15th most valuable transaction on the list—was prompted by Valley's “strategy to go into the Florida market because they see that as a growth market,” Rave said, citing lower tax rates and retiree traffic from New Jersey to Florida as factors favoring the acquisition.

“A lot [of banks] are very hesitant to bridge states” because of concerns about managing remote employees and because banking is “a very localized industry,” he said.

As for getting a piece of the top-end M&A market, Rave said it remains a tough proposition for firms outside New York. Day Pitney “has done billion-dollar deals, but that's definitely not the norm,” he said. Those engagements have come with long-term clients.

Meanwhile, large companies that want to go on merger sprees will continue to look to Wall Street firms. “For firms like us, our strategy has to be, we'll take the middle market”—in Day Pitney's case, deals of $10 million to $200 million, Rave said.