diff --git a/jjb/pipeline/voltha-publish.groovy b/jjb/pipeline/voltha-publish.groovy
index 65e251c..c8c48ef 100644
--- a/jjb/pipeline/voltha-publish.groovy
+++ b/jjb/pipeline/voltha-publish.groovy
@@ -58,8 +58,8 @@
               TAG="${params.manifestBranch}"
             fi
 
-	    # Check for SemVer in VERSION (only numbers and dots)
-	    RELEASETAG=`cat voltha/VERSION|tr -d ' '|egrep "^[0-9]+(\\.[0-9]+)*\$"`
+            # Check for SemVer in VERSION (only numbers and dots)
+            RELEASETAG=\$(cat voltha/VERSION|tr -d ' '|egrep '^[0-9]+(\\.[0-9]+)*\$'||true)
             if [ "\$RELEASETAG" != "" ]
             then
               VOLTHA_BUILD=docker TAG=\$TAG TARGET_REPOSITORY=voltha/ TARGET_TAG=\$RELEASETAG make push