diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ddbecb89343410268f5ce1ce39e44da8ed44adc3..01789ee7a3f18ce9f356b09ae7811e454cebc9b5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,10 +8,12 @@ os.chdir(SCRIPT_DIR)
 with open('README.rst', 'r') as f:
     long_description = f.read()
 
-with open('src/oebuild/version.py', 'r') as f:
-    __version__ = None
-    exec(f.read())
-    assert __version__ is not None
+try:
+    with open('src/oebuild/version.py', 'r') as f:
+        exec(f.read())
+        assert __version__ is not None
+except (FileNotFoundError, AssertionError):
+    raise ValueError("Failed to retrieve version from version.py")
 
 version = os.environ.get('OEBUILD_VERSION', __version__)