diff --git a/src/parsers/directive.parser.ts b/src/parsers/directive.parser.ts
index ad0bffa..137ba6c 100644
--- a/src/parsers/directive.parser.ts
+++ b/src/parsers/directive.parser.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import { isPathAngularComponent, extractComponentInlineTemplate } from '../utils
 
 import * as cheerio from 'cheerio';
 
-const $ = cheerio.load('', {xmlMode: true});
+const $ = cheerio.load('', { xmlMode: true });
 
 export class DirectiveParser implements ParserInterface {
 
@@ -19,9 +19,9 @@ export class DirectiveParser implements ParserInterface {
 	protected parseTemplate(template: string): TranslationCollection {
 		let collection: TranslationCollection = new TranslationCollection();
 
-		template = this.normalizeTemplateAttributes(template);
-
 		const selector = '[translate], [ng2-translate]';
+
+		template = this.prepareTemplate(template);
 		$(template)
 			.find(selector)
 			.addBack(selector)
@@ -45,6 +45,12 @@ export class DirectiveParser implements ParserInterface {
 		return collection;
 	}
 
+	protected prepareTemplate(template: string): string {
+		return this.wrapTemplate(
+			this.normalizeTemplateAttributes(template)
+		);
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Angular's `[attr]="'val'"` syntax is not valid HTML,
 	 * so it can't be parsed by standard HTML parsers.
@@ -54,4 +60,11 @@ export class DirectiveParser implements ParserInterface {
 		return template.replace(/\[([^\]]+)\]="'([^']*)'"/g, '$1="$2"');
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Wraps template in tag
+	 */
+	protected wrapTemplate(template: string, tag: string = 'div'): string {
+		return `<${tag}>${template}</${tag}>`;
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/tests/parsers/directive.parser.spec.ts b/tests/parsers/directive.parser.spec.ts
index b110977..b0028c0 100644
--- a/tests/parsers/directive.parser.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/parsers/directive.parser.spec.ts
@@ -124,4 +124,18 @@ describe('DirectiveParser', () => {
 		expect(keys).to.deep.equal(['Hello World']);
 	});
 
+	it('should not cause error when no html is present in template', () => {
+		const contents = `
+			import { Component } from '@angular/core';
+			@Component({
+				template: '{{ variable }}'
+			})
+			export class MyComponent {
+				variable: string
+			}
+		`;
+		const keys = parser.extract(contents, componentFilename).keys();
+		expect(keys).to.deep.equal([]);
+	});
+
 });