A North Dakota-headquartered insurance holding company has announced increased net losses for the third quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year.

NI Holdings, the holding company for Fargo-headquartered Nodak Insurance, reported losses of $2.7 million, up from $1 million for the third quarter of last year. Earnings per share were $0.12 in third quarter 2017.

"Although our bottom line results for the quarter are down when compared to 2016, we are encouraged by improvement in our property and casualty lines of business," Michael Alexander, NI president and CEO, said. "While second- and third-quarter results in this industry can be impacted by higher frequency and severity of weather-related losses, our experience this year has improved significantly over last year and are within expectations for our property and casualty lines."

The company's crop insurance lines of business were impacted by the effects of the early season drought conditions across the western portions of North Dakota, he said.

The company reported net premiums earned of $52.5 million, and net realized capital gain on investments of $1.9 million, down from $5 million for third quarter 2016.

NI also assumed reinsurance losses of $2.5 million related to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in the quarter.

NI Holdings Inc. is the stock holding company of Nodak Insurance Co., which owns several insurance companies in the Midwest.