diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 330554e2f724ab283279a97e0cdca39fdcc853e4..a248e0371461a8d85d3944fa91183ac929d56f88 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ Maintainer's guide: `<https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/LHCb/MaintainGaudiCMa
 
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
 
-project(Gaudi VERSION 38.1
+project(Gaudi VERSION 38.2
               LANGUAGES CXX
               DESCRIPTION "Gaudi Software Framework"
               HOMEPAGE_URL "https://cern.ch/gaudi")
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 850073d31614e3758aee212840c21f4e0734abe7..f42468c47366be75518e77c991787c25098f470f 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ copyright = "1998-2023, CERN for the benefit of the LHCb and ATLAS collaboration
 author = "The Gaudi Developers"
 
 # The short X.Y version
-version = "38.1"
+version = "38.2"
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags
-release = "v38r1"
+release = "v38r2"
 
 # -- General configuration ---------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/utils/update_version.py b/utils/update_version.py
index 7f7cd031c6b831fc62a9a79d0a8ea4265e62641b..6c7d3bf452a16aaaedf08ea91799c8b7b211f72a 100755
--- a/utils/update_version.py
+++ b/utils/update_version.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 #####################################################################################
-# (c) Copyright 2023 CERN for the benefit of the LHCb and ATLAS collaborations      #
+# (c) Copyright 2023-2024 CERN for the benefit of the LHCb and ATLAS collaborations #
 #                                                                                   #
 # This software is distributed under the terms of the Apache version 2 licence,     #
 # copied verbatim in the file "LICENSE".                                            #
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ def update_changelog(fields: Fields) -> tuple[str, list[str], list[str]]:
         if refs.strip()
         else f"- {msg.strip()}\n"
         for change in changes
-        for msg, refs in [change.split("<=>", 1)]
+        for msg, refs in ([change.split("<=>", 1)] if "<=>" in change else [])
     ]
 
     filename = "CHANGELOG.md"