Bank M&A - Wilbur Ross Shops N.J.

VINELAND, N.J. (TheStreet) -- New Jersey is famous for its malls but that's not where Wilbur Ross, a well-known distressed investor, plans to go shopping.

Instead, he's going after banks in the Garden State. In discussing last week's investment by his firm W.L. Ross & Co. in Sun Bancorp (SNBC) of Vineland, N.J., Ross told The New York Times that this deal could be his first of many in the state.

"The next 18 banks in size after this one, together, have around $5 billion in deposits, and there's another 100-some-odd banks that, in total, have $40 billion in deposits," Ross said in the NYT article. "That's just way too many banks for one state to have."

In light of Ross's stated agenda, TheStreet decided to poke around the Garden State Parkway's many exits and try to pinpoint some attractive targets, large and small.