Sir Tom Hunter, one of Scotland’s wealthiest men, has confirmed he has paid for Alex Salmond’s body to be flown home from the Balkans.

Hunter, a multimillionaire investor and philanthropist, was ambivalent about Scottish independence and was often critical of Scottish government policy but said Salmond had “devoted his life to Scotland”.

Speculation was rife about who had privately funded the charter flight due to bring Salmond’s body home from North Macedonia on Friday, after he died suddenly at a lunch on Saturday.

Officials in the former first minister’s party, Alba, believed the donor wanted to remain anonymous until Salmond’s funeral, which is expected to take place in private in his home village of Strichen, Aberdeenshire.

Hunter, who donated £100,000 to the Labour party in 2001, said he wanted to end the speculation after significant media inquiries.

“While he and I disagreed on some of his ambitions, Alex Salmond devoted his life to Scotland and the Scottish people and as such he, and importantly his family, deserved the dignity and privacy of a private return to the home of his birth,” he said in a short statement.

“Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with his family at this time. To be clear, I remain resolutely apolitical.”

Hunter, best known latterly for setting up the Hunter Foundation, which supports social enterprises, entrepreneurship and fundraising appeals such as Band Aid and STV’s annual children’s appeal, made his money from founding the retailer Sports Division and then property investment.

In 2001, he set up the investment firm West Coast Capital and took stakes in the theme parks company Merlin, the retirement homes developer McCarthy & Stone, Travelodge, and Dobbies garden centres.

That allowed him to claim the crown as Scotland’s first homegrown billionaire in 2007, according to the Sunday Times rich list; the financial crisis in 2008 and onwards sliced a reputed £250m off that wealth. He is now estimated to be worth £729m.